156 Targeted Training (II)
Black-Sting Hornets shared the characteristics of their bug brothers in the Virident Forest, the Eight-Winged Cicadas. They were both extremely speedy and possessed high attack, low defense and extremely low HP.
The only difference was Black-Sting Hornets dropped Black-Stings, a material Samar could use to make more Rune Arrows of higher levels.
Samar arrived at the Ravaged Canyon, a place of drought and death. Beyond this map lay the border between the Panjal Region of the Elven Forests and the Stygian Peaks of the Kingdom of Death.
He stood on a rocky cliff, looking into the dried riverbed of the canyon where sparse few trees grew. As the wind buffeted his face, his eyes searched for a Hornet's nest.
A few minutes later, Samar's eyes lit up as his search bore fruit. On a gigantic tree avoided by most of the other creatures of the canyon, Samar spotted a few Hornets buzzing near the branches.
Upon a closer look, Samar found the hive of hornets carved into one of the dead branches. "Jackpot," He thought as he approached the tree, getting a closer look at the Hornets.
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Black-Sting Hornets
Lv 23 (Tier 1)
Attack: ★★★★☆
Defense: ★★★
HP: 3500
Skills: Sting Jab, Buzz Wing, Fell Stinger
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Most of these Black-Sting Hornets were larger than ordinary sparrows with some even as large as the pigeons. Like a tip of a sword, their sharp stings at the tailend gleamed under the sunlight, a threat to most of their predators.
Samar however, was not the least bit bothered by them. He slowly closed the distance until they were in his attack range and infused Runic Power into a dozen arrows.
As soon as the arrows were ready, Samar shot the arrows in quick succession, activating the Rune on it in less than a tenth of a second. Despite this, he was not happy.
The Hornets had quickly reacted to his arrows. Sensing danger, they immediately dispersed, making him miss 9 of his 12 shots. The few arrows that did hit, immediately downed the Hornets, and Samar attracted the wrath of the whole hive towards him.
As the buzzing cloud of the Hornets approached him, Samar shot a Flameburst at them. The fiery arrow exploded in the midst of the Cloud, killing most of the Hornets and deterring the rest, making them retreat to the safety of their hive.
As Samar collected his loot, he replayed the battle in his head. He had needed around a second to shoot each arrow, meaning 12 seconds to empty his quiver of 12 arrows.
This would be a great speed against anyone else but not Sage Vikran. If he wanted to win against him, he would have to halve his time.
This meant his only option was the skill, Rapid Shot, which allowed him to shoot 10 arrows in just 3 seconds, a pair of arrows per round. After combining the skill with activated Wind Rune Arrows, he was sure that Sage Vikran's arrows would not be able to catch up with him.
With this in mind, Samar began to practice the instant activation of Rune Arrows while using the Rapid Shot skill. He failed and failed until he succeeded just once.
The air crackled with energy as Samar channeled the Mana in his body towards the tip of his fingers. As soon as the Mana touched the two Rune Arrows notched on the bowstring, it successfully activated both of them simultaneously!
However, Samar was only able to shoot the first round of Rapid Shot skill with the activated Rune Arrows; his following eight Rune arrows were still shot before he could activate them.
This did not deter Samar. He began to build up on his small success and continued to observe the process of activation.
"The moment Pure Mana circulated through my body comes in touch with the Runic Power I invoke, an uncontrolled chain of reaction starts, activating the Runic Power and thus the Rune Arrow."
"This means the reaction between Mana and Runic Power does not actually need my controlled intervention."
Samar mentally noted, and his eyes lit up as he came to a realization. "As long as I can keep Mana focused on my finger tips, every invoked Rune Arrow will be activated in an instant!"
For the next hour, Samar worked on controlling his Mana. Controlling his Mana to smoothen his Mana channels was a huge task but focusing his Mana in his fingertips and keeping it there for a prolonged period of time was a much easier task.
Samar spent an hour finding a method to keep Mana at the extremities of his fingers and finally he succeeded. He used Rapid Shot skill with his fingers glowing blue with Mana.
As soon as Samar shot the first round, he reached for another pair of arrows from his quiver. Within the fraction of second Samar needed to notch them on the Bowstring, the Rune Arrows began to shine with the activated Runic.
Then came the third round, the fourth round and the fifth round. Every pair of Rune Arrows launched were all activated, bringing him immense joy.
Although a stack of Wind Rune Arrows had been wasted in the process, he was happy to lose them in exchange for advancement of his actual skill. Knowing that this new technique would give him an edge against Sage Vikran vanquished his sense of loss completely!
However, looking at the number of Black-Sting Hornets killed by his arrows, he was overcome with grief. 90 arrows shot and only 18 hit the Hornets!
Although he had solved the issue of time, his accuracy was holding him back. Even after the enhancements he received from Tej Mantra, his reflexes had not reached the point of instantly locking onto his target.
The only thing that could help him was practice, lots and lots of practice.
Hours had passed since Samar had arrived in the Ravaged Canyon. He had used up around two stacks of Rune Arrows and collected 73 Black-Stings from the loot dropped by the Hornets.
Fatigue had built up in his muscles and beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. His arms were heavy like lead from shooting so many arrows but he had persisted in his endeavor.
Samar regulated his breathing and notched two arrows on his bow. Mana traveled from his core to his arms and finally, to his fingertips where it simultaneously activated both the Rune Arrows notched on the bowstring.
He pulled back the string halfway, performing the trigger action for the skill, Rapid Shot. Adrenaline pumped in his veins as he performed the motions for Rapid Shot from muscle memory.
Grab two arrows from the quiver, notch them on the bowstring, activate them and release. Without a single pause, he repeated the same action for five rounds, shooting 10 activated Rune Arrows at the Hornets in a span of 3 seconds!
Only after the skill came to an end did Samar check his kills. He had shot 10 arrows in total and 7 of them had hit the target, downing the Hornet!
"This is the same as the last three rounds," Samar thought with a joyous smile as he picked up the Black-Stings dropped by the dead Hornets.
And why would he not be happy?
His hard work had borne fruit as he was able to kill 6 to 7 Hornets with every Rapid Shot, a significant improvement from just 3 Hornets every 12 arrows.
Although this was not enough to match the accuracy of Sage Vikran, Samar did not care. He had not just trained his accuracy during the past few hours, but he had also formulated a strategy that gave him a sureshot chance at victory.
Samar salvaged the few dozen Rune Arrows that he could recycle and went to the Craftsman Association. After selecting the automated production of Wind Arrows using the Black-Stings, Samar logged out, ready to face Sage Vikran's Advancement test the next morning.
