27 June 2023
Kesoko, 32nd Floor
"Do you not know the way of the arrow?"
That question had bugged me really hard.
It was at the time when Mikane brought the question up, or rather, when I decided to use my bow to hunt the demons with her in the northern outskirts of Kesoko. The outskirts were all bamboo forest though, but with my map showing my exact location, I couldn't help but wanted to take note of that possibly insignificant detail.
The Dragon Slayer+8, which had an enhancement limit of 10, held well in my left holder arm. My right arm was ready to pull the bowstring anytime, the arrow already materializing itself on my bow at the right place to be pulled. All these really required quite the time to get used to, yet the weapon skills I could use with the bow only numbered one.
Don't get me wrong here. I'd already seen and searched through the Bow & Arrow skill tree in my menu, and knew that there were more than what I could do with my bow, apart from the 1-hit bow skill that I had always been using, Snipe Shot. That bow skill always got jobs done during enemy mob hunts, but it gradually wasn't as reliable as what I thought it used to be.
Mikane brought the topic up the instant my bow appeared.
"That's.....the way of the arrow, isn't it?"
Trying to understand the slang of her speech, I replied while stretching my held bow at arm length.
"Hmm......if that's how you people see it, then yeah, I follow the way of the arrow, as well as the way of the......spear. So you're following the way of the dagger, I assume?"
"I follow the way of the kunai too, you know!"
"Oh, I see.......the way of the kunai, huh......."
I needed to learn how the people here in Kesoko talk. I really should make a mental note about it.
"Anyways, I'm following the way of the arrow today. I hope our usual strategy doesn't change much....."
Mikane maintained her smile as she said, "It doesn't. I think today's strategy might be better!"
We soon spotted a demon with a humanoid build in the distance. Mikane started off with her kunai throw, striking the demon down into slumber. She never needed a second throw to hit the same enemy, which made me feel impressed of her support role as an NPC companion.
My accuracy, however, might fall short of Mikane's. I readied my bow to activate the bow skill, Snipe Shot. The arrow glowed light blue as I released the string. Sure enough, the demon caught the arrow by the head, before bursting into crystals right after. It must have been a critical hit, I thought, before pulling another arrow.
It wasn't that my normal shots were that inaccurate, but I didn't want to waste Mikane's power of immobilizing enemies while going demon hunting. I do still take a considerable amount of time getting a good shot on anything, so I didn't want to take my chances.
Surprisingly, I soon took down the next few demons with single headshots each, with Snipe Shot. Even without critical damage, the skill still could take down the demons in one shot, as long as it struck the head. I really had underestimated the power of the skill, but I couldn't help thinking that another reason might be behind this. I never found out that reason, though.
By the time of evening, the forest had lost a dozen demons, and we took a break under a bamboo tree with an exceptionally thick trunk. I sat leaning against the smooth and hollow pillar, and Mikane did the same beside me. I looked at our HP gauges at the top left side of my vision, and felt satisfied. This was the fifth demon-hunting quest I had taken on in the Kesoko campaign quest, and I had completed it without me or Mikane taking any damage from the demons. I guess my bow really proved useful in these kind of situations.
"I see you only use one technique in the way of the arrow, don't you, visitor?"
I turned to stare at her. I knew that she made the question, but it was a question that I didn't expect to hear. Her commenting on a human player's fighting style gave the same kind of doubt I had about the previous NPC I was with in the lower Floors, Legolia. Their way of speech might have surpassed the boundaries of NPC algorithms, but if they were talking about that kind of stuff in front of players, one would think they might be almost human.
Plus, a NPC can't possibly just speak out suddenly like that. I should have gotten used to it due to the time I had spent with Legolia in the Elf War campaign, but......
I leaned my head on the bamboo trunk, as if I wanted to store my thoughts on NPC behaviour into it. Overthinking things was one of my habits, but safe-keeping them to think them through on another day was also one of them as well.
"Um, you see, the way of the arrow has many more techniques,........but I can't find a way to activa---use them. That one technique you saw just now was the only one I could use."
".......Why?"
"I just.......don't have the way yet....."
Mikane was trying to do a balancing act of her kunai on her kneecap when I gave my reply. She caught the toppling black blade gently, and looked up at the canopy of the bamboo tree.
"! may not be an archer-in-training, but do you not know the way of the arrow? You are following the way of the arrow, but you seem to have not mastered the way yet."
I looked at my bow once more. The Bow & Arrow skill did seem mysterious when I first unlocked it. I didn't even question its unknown unlock conditions either.
"Are you troubled by how to master the way of the arrow?" Mikane asked again. It was as if some mind-reading algorithm was installed in her program, but maybe that might be true.
"Mmm.....yeah." I replied. "You don't know the way of the arrow, but the way of the kunai, right? How did you master that way then?"
It might not be relevant, but I needed to gain some inspiration to solve the problem. I've been using the same bow skill for 22 Floors already, and it was time to crack the mystery that has been bugging me for so long.
Mikane got up and sat on the ground, in front of me who was still leaning against the tree. She bowed her head down in deep thought for a short while before starting her explanation.
"Well....the way of the kunai has been passed down through my people, so it has been taught to me. But when my people had started trying to learn the way a long time ago, they tried to master it in a way that was not suitable."
"Which means what, exactly?" I asked.
"They tried to use the kunai as if it was meant to be swung around, as they were trying to make techniques manifest within the way of the kunai. It never worked out in the end, because--"
"--It was never considered as a weapon in the first place, wasn't it?" I cut in, feeling confident about my conclusion there. Mikane might not understand what I said, but I got the point of her explanation.
The kunai wasn't considered a weapon type in the game system of SAO. Even if it had the ability to inflict damage, it probably wasn't important or significant enough to have its own weapon skill tree. Since a weapon skill tree for the kunai didn't exist, it was logical that the people of Kesoko would never get to activate weapon skills wielding a kunai.
Mikane paused instantly at my speculation, and continued, "Well.......the kunai is shorter than even a dagger, so using it as a weapon to swing around was impractical."
"I can see that." I said while taking a glance at Mikane's kunai strapped at her waist. Compared to her dagger, the black blade might have been only three-quarters of its length.
"So, we gave up on the idea that the kunai could be used as a weapon in close combat, and saw the kunai in a different way. That is, it can be thrown across long distances."
A sudden spark went off in my head. The solution to their problem had been hiding in plain sight all along. If you can't use the kunai as a melee weapon, why not treat it as a ranged weapon instead? Maybe that really was how a kunai should be used in this world.
I began thinking about the Bow & Arrow skill. Although I was confident that the bow skill tree existed for a reason, there still wasn't a solution to activate the bow skills listed in that very same skill tree. I'd memorized the names of all the bow skills I had unlocked so far in the bow skill tree, but if I couldn't use them, it would be pointless.
Standing up while still holding my bow, I stretched my holder arm out again. After the arrow had appeared onto my bow, I pulled the string and held there. My aim was a bamboo tree at a distance 30 metres away. Mikane watched me quietly, probably knowing that I was trying to solve my own problem.
"Now, how do I do this........?" I asked out loud.
The silence was starting to bore me, until Mikane asked a simple question that would change my way of thinking forever.
"I do not know the way of the arrow, but what are the techinques that can be used in the way of the arrow, other than the one that you have already used?"
Still mantaining my stance, I tried to remember the bow skills that were unlocked after Snipe Shot in the bow skill tree.
"Um, well, Snipe Shot was already unlocked when I got the skill, so after that I would unlock the skill Triple Chaser, and---"
A spark of light caught my eye, and my pause of speech followed. What I saw on my bow was unbelievable. The arrow was now glowing with a green light effect.
"Wah.........no way............" I mumbled with a nonchalent tone.
My right hand releaesed its hold of the bowstring instinctively.
The arrow burst out of the bow, splitting into three glowing duplicates of itself that fly across the air in their own trajectories, before striking the bamboo tree trunk. It remained standing, but I could see damage marks on its side.
The 3-hit bow skill, Triple Chaser. I could finally activate it, and the method was so obvious and simple that it wouldn't make sense to call it a mind-blowing achievement. It was probably the same for the other bow skills as well.
I had never mentioned the names of any of my bow skills, let alone thinking about it when I was solving the problem. Those bow skills were voice-activated, and I was too ignorant about it to try it out just because my spear skills didn't need the calling out of their skill names to activate.
Mikane was staring at the tree trunk with curiosity, as if the damage marks were a form of art that I came up with on the spot. She then offered me a gentle applause before moving in the direction of the village.
Perhaps it was from a sudden impulse, but my hand reached out to touch Mikane's shoulder. She turned to look at me in a puzzling manner.
"What's up now? Didn't you already find the method to master the way of the arrow?"
"....Who exactly are y---Actually, never mind......"
I was getting more and more convinced that the NPC standing in front of me now was human. It was just a guess, a hypothesis, but Mikane giving me a hint to solving my problem might not be by chance. I could just write it off as Mikane's AI being more advanced than others, but I knew deep down that it couldn't be the case.
I watched my NPC companion sprint and disappear into the density of the forest before trying to follow suit with my not-so-stealthy run.
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