The World Which Is

Chapter 20

"Base gave me one for my birthday," I reply, leading him and not correcting him on what I practiced.

"Then I expect it's going to be a decent one. We were still using some of them when I started learning archery from my father."

Once we reached the industrial area, Francis studied it and has Base make targets against the wall. "Care to provide training arrows for us, Base?"

A table forms with wooden arrows on it.

He spent close to an hour showing me how to hold the bow, how to nock the arrow to the string, how to hold myself, both at rest and while pulling the string, while not letting me fire it. It was mildly annoying not to fire my new bow, since unlike what he thought, I hadn't actually practiced shooting it, but if there's one thing Grandmother taught me in her class is that rushing training to get to the 'good stuff' is a sure-fire way to be horrible at it.

You have gained a level. You are now level 2 in Archery

"Good," Francis says, "now, let's move on to seeing if you can hit the target."

"You know I gained a level?" I nock the arrow and pull.

"As your teacher, I get a notification."

I let it go and it shatters on the wall. I nock another one.

"Take your time, Dennis. The longer you aim, the more the bonus to your skill increases." I hold it, lining up with the center of the target. "Of course," he adds after a while. "It also means your target can get closer to you, so you can't simply wait unit you can't miss."

I let it loose and it shatters against the wall, but at the edge of the target this time.

"It's why you want to get your training in, to raise your skill." He stands behind me as I pull on the string and adjust my footing, then my stance.

I shoot the target over and over, well past the point my arm hurts from the strain and my shots get worse from one to the next. This isn't about accuracy, I tell myself. Remembering Grandmother's mantra from the early days of my training. This is about ingraining the movements so I can stop thinking about how to fight, or shoot the bow in this case, and just do it. Only then can I move on to doing it better.

You have gained a level. You are now level 3 in Archery

I am sweaty and my strength feels like it dropped below zero.

Francis pats my shoulder. "Good work. I can come back tomorrow morning, but after that, we're going to have to work out something if you want me to continue training you. I have other duties, too."

"I can pay you for the training," I offer. Happy Base kept me from spending all the money. This is definitely a better investment than another skill.

"We can talk it over tomorrow. How about I meet you here at the same time? If we get in a solid three hours, you should reach level four, but don't expect to notice a lot of changes until higher levels."

"Level thirteen is where we get the first noticeable boots." Sword fighting, that's when I started getting a sense of how my opponent moved. I still can't anticipate worth shit, but I figure at twenty-six that'll get easier.

Francis chuckles. "You won't get a noticeable effect until twenty-six. The strain of repeated firing will lessen at thirteen, and you'll get faster with nocking the arrow."

"I got the quick-nocking skill. Base recommended it."

"And it's a good suggestion, but we're going to wait until you have a good basis for your archery before spending much time with that."