Chapter 34 - archery

Chapter 34: Chapter 34 - archery

I went to archery after waving goodbye to Nyx.

I walked toward a training room.

A middle-aged man was standing there, saw me coming, and asked, "What training room do you want?"

I replied, "Hm. Anything is fine. I need to practice my archery skill."

He looked at me and nodded. "Okay. Transfer me 100 points, then you can use it for an hour."

I looked at him, my eyes widened. "Ah, 100 merit points. That’s all I have left."

He looked at me suspiciously and said, "Then why did you come, kid? Nothing is free. Everything costs merit points here."

I didn’t give up. "But the principal said the top 10 get privileges. I need my privilege."

He looked at me, studied me, and said, "You’re top 10? Don’t joke around, kid."

I showed him my academy ID. "Hey, I’m not lying. See for yourself. I’m number 2."

He took a look and saw it, and it surprised him, and he said,

"Hey, you!!"

"Didn’t you just say you only have 100 merit points? Then why do I see there are 10,100 of them?"

I looked at it and smiled. "Ah, about that. Ten is such a small amount, so I didn’t mention the first two numbers."

"Don’t mind those small matters."

His eyes twitched. "You brat. I never seen a shameless person like you before."

"Okay, fine. You have the privilege of using the training room free. Go to room number 9."

I smiled brightly. "Oh, thank you."

"Hey, are there free arrows or something? Because I don’t have any."

He looked at me, speechless. "Then how are you going to practice archery?"

I just scratched my head and showed him a small smile. "Oh, about that. I didn’t think much."

"I always forget those small details. Can you give me some arrows for practice?"

He put a hand on his face. "Go inside. The room has plenty of arrows. And don’t come to me anymore. Find someone else."

"If not, next time you’ll rob me whole while we’re talking."

I just smiled and asked, "Are you rich?"

He blinked, then understood, and gave me a look.

I just immediately went to the room.

I looked around for arrows and saw there were many weapons and arrows on the side.

So I went and picked one and got out my bow and looked at it.

Is there an instruction menu or something in this? I wondered.

Ahh, fuck it. I’ll just do what those other guys do.

I put the arrow in the bow and took aim

at a dummy. I dragged the arrow way back and released.

But that didn’t go where I intended.

It went to a completely different location.

I blinked. What happened? I don’t believe there’s something in this world I can’t do.

If that bastard Robin Hood can, I can too.

I used another arrow and nocked it and tried to put my eye at different angles and tried to take aim.

And finally I found an angle that I can easily take aim and shoot.

This time the arrow went in the intended direction, but nowhere near the target.

I’m not giving up.

I took another arrow and shot it and looked at the trajectory, and I kept doing that and changed my aim by observing the previous trajectory.

It’s working.

So I shot another and finally hit a target.

There’s a little technical problem that I hit the wrong target, but who cares? I finally hit it.

I’m the greatest archer there is. I’ll leave Robin Hood in the dust.

So I took another arrow and practiced for a few hours and finally managed to get a decent aim. Like if I shoot 10 arrows, two of them hit.

I can’t believe my own progress. I’m a hidden genius.

Then I did something new. I used fire on my arrows and made a burning arrow and tried to fire, but I put the whole arrow in fire and it burned away.

Only the tip of the arrow remained.

"Cough. Today there are many technical issues."

"It seems someone is jealous of my greatness, and that made my luck sink into the bottom."

I used the new thing Miss Selena taught me and augmented the arrow with a mana layer and shot it.

But as usual it went off the rails and hit the wall.

So I did it a few times and managed to hit the dummy.

And I nodded with satisfaction. "Hm. It’s more powerful than a normal arrow."

Then I got another idea. I used mana as a layer and used fire on top of that.

And this time the arrow didn’t burn out, so I shot it.

And it hit the dummy and burned it down.

"I’m the best."

And I kept practicing it until my mana ran out, and I finally had a decent aim.

So I decided to stop at this.

I need to go and find my meal ticket. I’m so hungry.

So with a good mood I came out from the training room and went to Nyx’s room and knocked a few times.

After a few moments she opened the door, frowning.

I showed her a bright smile. "Hello. I finished my training. How about we go and pick something to eat?"

After seeing it was me, her frown eased a little.

She narrowed her eyes then. "Hm. What are you up to now?"

I raised my hand. "Why are you looking at me like I’m a criminal?"

"I’m working hard to become a good archer, and I surpassed that Robin Hood fellow and rob everyone."

She just stared at me and said, "You do know his main purpose is not to rob? It’s to help the poor, right?"

I nodded. "Of course I know. In this case the poor person is me, so I only have to rob."

"Aren’t I a genius?"

She looked at me and said, "Idiot."

And we went to the cafeteria together, and as usual I got a massive plate of food and sat down.

Nyx followed me and asked, "Tell me the real reason you asked me to come is to pay for your meal, right?"

I avoided her eye contact. "You’re just imagining things. Am I the type of person to do such a thing?"

She said straightforwardly, "Yes."

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I know, I know."

And I blinked. "Aa, that didn’t come out right. You should say no."

She just stared at me. "But you are." She smiled.

I pointed an exaggerated finger at her. "Don’t make rumors about me, Nyx. You might get hit by lightning."

She just replied, "If lightning really hit like that, you’d be dead right now because of how many things you make up."

I just argued with her, and we laughed and enjoyed the dinner.

There are lots of days we have before needing to change to the 2nd floor, but we take all the resources the academy gives us to make us more powerful and keep training.

I use mana coating in my swordsmanship. I practice daggers as well. I need to be all-around in fighting.

Nobles look at us, but we didn’t give them the time of day and keep out of their way, and some of them come to ask me to join them

and become a member of them. I refuse immediately. Who wants to get a collar around your neck willingly?

But no one dares to make trouble for us because they know what happened to Cassian.

I didn’t see him much, but he is there. He can’t afford to make more trouble. If he gets kicked out of the academy, he loses far more than a few things.

He might lose the family head title forever, and some other branch of his family kid could use that against him.

But I pay no attention to them.

I tease Nyx and have as much fun as possible and train my archery and swordsmanship.

We went to see Miss Selena.

We need to enter the second floor.

When we enter her room, she is studying some paperwork, but after she saw us she put it away.

And we explained our situation, and she listened and asked, "Are you sure you want to enter the next floor?"

I looked at her and replied, "Yes, Miss Selena. I want to get stronger. I like my current life, but I know this can be lost in any moment, so I need to get strong."

"So I can keep living as I want."

She looked at me and smiled. "Hm. That’s quite a good motivation."

She looked at Nyx and asked, "What about you, Student Nyx?"

Nyx said, "I have to get stronger for my own survival."

She nodded. She knew the underlying meaning about revenge, but she didn’t mention it.

And she nodded and gave us permission to enter the 2nd floor.

After that we thanked her and left her room.

She looked at us and said, "Good luck to you two. You are one of the most talented students I have had, so don’t die out there."

We smiled at her and left.