23 I Found Da Wae

(Morgan Pov)

Today is my day off, I was not assigned any chores to complete. I have no idea what to do today, and nothing is coming to mind. I'm still thinking about what Hassar said to me yesterday. It was nice to know he thinks I'm important to him, but I can't think of a reason why.

I don't want to waste my day just mulling over this, I should probably do something productive with my time. What is something I won't have time to do this week? Wait a second, I'm dumb I have a spell to help me out with this. I haven't used this spell in quite a while.

'Skill Screen'

[Personal Skill:

Sorcery Blade

Combat Skills:

Parry

?o?? St???e

Passive Skills:

Breathing: B

Literacy: A

Arithmetics: B-

Logistics: C+ -> B-

Silver Tongue: B+

Etiquette: B+

Survival Skills:B -> B+

Skinning: E- -> C-

Animal Husbandry: E- -> D+

Dark Magic Proficiency: B- -> B

Anima Magic Proficiency: E- -> D+

Spear/Polearm Proficiency: C- -> C+

Sword/Saber Proficiency: D- -> C-

Axe Proficiency: E- -> D+

Unarmed Combat Proficiency: D-

Bow Proficiency: E- -> D

Throwing: D -> C

Horse Riding Proficiency: E- -> D

Medicine/Poison Proficiency: B- -> B

Poison Resistance: B- -> B

Disease Resistance: C+ -> B-

Observation: C -> C+

Hearing: C -> C+

Smell: D- -> D+

Taste: C+ -> B-

Touch: D+ -> C+

Balance: D- -> C+

Proprioception: D- -> C+

Cooking: F+ -> F+++]

I forgot how much of a pain looking through this page is, but knowing what areas I improved in and what areas I am slacking in is helpful. The skill I have improved on the most is my cooking, pretty soon it will hit E-.

Right now it's still really bad, bad enough to raise my poison and disease resistance a level. I don't know how I created a disease through cooking, but we don't ask questions we don't want answers to. I care way too much about the others, I will never let anyone eat my cooking until it's barely edible.

I was able to level up cooking by learning the art of boiling food from the women of the tribe. I'm still really bad at it, but I'm still learning and that means I'm making progress. One day I'll move onto other methods. I really want to learn how to roast things, I want to be a skilled roaster.

Despite how ass my cooking is, I haven't experienced anything too horrible. The most horrible thing to happen to me as a result of my cooking was a horrible aftertaste that lasted a week. No vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, cramps, or feelings of weakness. But that may be because of how high my resistances are.

I don't want to go through the rest of the week with the lingering aftertaste of my food, so I should focus on something else. I can't work on my next obtaining my second combat skill alone, from what I have learned so far, that skill has to deal with teamwork.

I think most of the group will be free tomorrow, so I can work on the skill tomorrow with the rest of them. I should do some weapon training today, so that means I should focus on improving as an archer. Maybe doing this will help me come up with an answer to Hassar's question.

Hassar had worked with me on a lot of things, but there were three things he was adamant about teaching me. He wanted to teach me how to ride a horse, how to use a saber, how to do mounted and unmounted archery. It was a tough and slow process, but I learned the basics.

I just need some more practice before I can be considered a competent archer. I have my bow, my quiver, and different-sized targets stored away in my inventory, but I don't have any arrows. That's right I broke the last of my arrows when I tried hunting that marmot.

I should make some more arrows, but I don't think I have enough bones stored away to make arrowheads. I wonder who will be willing to give me some arrows. I'm wasting enough time just thinking about what to do, I should make some arrows for now.

----------------------A Few Moments Later

I didn't have as many arrows as I wanted for practice, I had to borrow some arrows from my buddy Blaise. I wonder how many of these arrows will survive today's practice? I already placed the targets in my desired locations, I'm almost ready to shoot.

Should I shoot using my left or right hand? Out of habit, I use my right hand a lot more than my left. But, that doesn't mean I am any less proficient with my left hand. It's a very convenient talent to have, and I'm glad this is something I was born with.

I probably wouldn't have trained myself to be ambidextrous, I am pretty sure the thought wouldn't even cross my mind. I think I'll use my left hand to draw. I can't find my thumb ring? Do I have one in my pocket? Please be in my pocket, yesss! I am so glad I always keep a spare in my pocket.

I am wearing my thumb ring on my left hand, now I'm ready. I hold my short bow with my right hand, I hook my left thumb towards the bottom of the nock point on my bowstring. I then place my index finger over my thumbnail, this allows me to pin the arrow against the bow.

Okay Morgan, don't aim too high, aim lower than you think. Is this too high or too low? This is a warm-up shot, I shouldn't overthink this. My hips, shoulders, and feet feel like they are aligned properly, I am in the proper stance for now. I want to start with an overdraw shot.

This is risky, but if I do land this shot I will get a huge morale boost and a surge of momentum going into my next shot. I pull the string back and extend the arm holding the bow. Doing so allows me to achieve a full draw. Oh, this is going to be good! I can feel it!

I relax and let go of the bowstring, and I hear the satisfying sound of the arrow hitting the target. I take a closer look, and for the first time in my life, I hit the center of the bullseye.

"I'm the best! Around! Nothing's gonna ever keep me down!"

~Thats a lie and you know it! It was a lucky shot, you still have a ways to go. Remember, it's my job to keep you down, so you don't go off the deep end.~

"Aaagh! Warn me before you yell, you scared the crap out of me. I haven't heard from you in a long time, what were you doing."

~I was very busy. My life doesn't revolve around you, idiot. I just wanted you to have time to adjust to your new life. Not that I care about that~

"What are you anyway? Never mind, you'll just dodge the question. So how have you been?"

~I'm bored so I decided to watch you for a bit. I have a quick question. Where do you stand among the other kids in archery?~

"The other kids are more accurate, can shoot from different angles, and they have moved up to shooting accurately while running. And then there is me on the other side of the spectrum. I am the only one who has the strength to pull off a full draw.

I have the most control over my body and habits. So that means my form is not only consistently better, but I am also the fastest reloading an arrow. This holds true even when I'm running or horseback, but my accuracy is hot trash. I am trying to work on it though."

~Hmm, that's an interesting situation you are in. Fire a couple of more arrows, lets see if I can help you.~

"Okay."

I get back into the proper form and mindset for shooting a bow. Deep breath, Morgan you just have to make a couple of simple shots. She is here to help not make fun of you. Or is she?

After some time I finally fire 5 arrows, 2 of them miss the target and the arrows are gone. The other 3 arrows hit the target, but in 3 very different locations.

"How was that? Notice anything that was off or that I could do better?"

~I don't know much about archery, but I did notice something. You tend to take large pauses in between each shot. I know you, so I knew you were doubting yourself and overthinking things. As a result, you were constantly readjusting your aim.~

"Do you have any advice for me?"

~I would say don't give yourself time to second guess yourself. If you are confident in your ability to reload and maintain your form, then you should just fire arrows as fast as you can. In other words, think less and do more.

Don't be afraid of thinking about and implementing simple solutions to your problems, you don't have to make things hard on yourself.~

"This is the second day in a row I heard something like this. Any ideas on how to keep me from overthinking things?"

~Put yourself in a trance.~

"How would I do that?"

~Try thinking of something else when going through the motions of shooting. Try singing a song while you shoot. That should give you a good rhythm to follow and provide you a good distraction. All you need to focus on is remembering the lyrics and maintaining that rhythm.

When you have a good rhythm going your movements become subconscious, and they can become a lot smoother and faster. If you can pull it off, you should be able to rapid-fire some arrows. Any songs come to mind?~

"There is one song that comes to mind immediately, I'll try your advice. I'll just sing the chorus for now.

I'm coming for you, yeah I'm coming for you. All the other kids with the pumped up kicks. You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun. All the other kids with the pumped up kicks. You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet."

~No. No. No. No. Why did you choose this song? I'm not comfortable hearing you sing this song while you attempt to mow down a target. The mental image is pretty terrifying, choose another song.~

"It was the first song that came to mind when I thought about shooting things. But this was a good test run. I landed all of my shots, and I didn't even get into a good rhythm yet. My accuracy improved a little in that short amount of time. Try not to interrupt me, while I sing this next song."

~I'll try, and emphasize on the try part.~

"Well, I never thought that it'd be so simple, but. I found a way, I found a way."

~I don't recognize this song.~

"Of course you don't ya uncultured weeb. How pitiful, you don't even recognize one of the classics.

And I always thought that it'd be too crazy, but. I found a way, I found a way. If you open up your mind, see what's inside."

—————Three minutes later

"Damn that worked a lot better than I expected. You were right, sometimes it's better to just go for it. With enough time and practice, I think I can outgrow my need for this crutch. For now, I'll have fun using this method until I can turn speed shooting into a habit."

~Go for it, I'm pretty interested in your taste in music. I really liked that last song, I thought it was pretty catchy.~

"I wonder what song I can sing next?"