Genius

That same evening, the trio finally stopped driving. They were going to stop here for the rest of the day and continue the next day. After having a meal of canned food and compressed biscuits it was finally time to begin Kane's archery training.

It was just around 5 pm so the sky had not turned dark. Abel marked an X on the bark of a withered tree. This was going to be Kane's target.

"Alright, let's test your accuracy. Stand back 20 feet and try to hit the mark" instructed Abel. "Okay" replied Kane. He moved back twenty feet with his bow in hand and a quiver of arrows slung on his back. While nocking an arrow, a crosshair that only he could see appeared in his vision and was placed where the projectile would hit if he fired.

He could easily adjust the crosshair but moving his aim and how tout he pulled the bowstring. He unsurprisingly got the mark. "Impressive now move ten feet further back," said Abel while pulling out the arrow.

Kane still hit the mark from thirty feet. His master got him to move further back and he still hit the mark from forty feet. He was also accurate at fifty feet but began to lose accuracy when he tried to move further away from the target any more than that.

This was not really because he lost accuracy but because he lacked the strength to pull the bowstring further than what he could presently do.

"Okay, from fifty feet, I want you to keep firing at this spot till you have used up all of your arrows. Wait for my signal" said Abel as retrieved the arrows previously shot by Kane and returned them to him before standing beside him.

"Begin!" Kane began firing at the target continuously. After the first three shots hit the mark, the others began to veer off target. His shots towards the end even frequently missed the entire tree altogether and landed on the ground in front of the tree.

His arm muscles had become extremely sore so he could no longer pull the bowstring as much as he did earlier making his shots lose their power, speed, and accuracy.

When he had fired all twenty arrows he looked up to his master's face only to see an 'I told you so' smirk on it which made him a little frustrated.

"Ahem, let's see how you did. Five arrows hit the mark, seven hit the tree, and the remaining eight hit the ground in front of the tree. You could also shoot arrows at the average rate of one arrow every seven seconds" said Abel as he moved to recollect the arrows.

"As you can see, different factors contribute to the accuracy of the arrows you shoot. Your lack of stamina, increasingly sore muscles, and body movement coordination made you less lethal as you continued firing.

In almost all battles, an archer won't just fire an arrow and everything gets sorted out. No. He keeps firing as much as he can until the battle is won. Your poor firing rate is impressive for someone your age. All you need to do is to keep practicing. We will end here for today." said Abel.

"Yes master" replied Kane he was glad he could finally rest. The muscles on his hands were killing him. "We will reuse your arrows up to four or more times before discarding them before they completely wear out" commented Abel as he took a look at the arrowheads.

Before stepping into the RV, Kane had to move past Mr. Abdul who had been watching them from the entrance. Abdul nodded at him and Kane returned the gesture before entering the RV to get some rest.

That night, Kane and his master were wary of sleeping in the same place with the mysterious Mr. Abdul. They couldn't simply ask him to leave the RV nor did they find it convenient to sleep outside the RV themselves.

They decided to rely on Abel's premonitions for safety. The night passed uneventfully although they did not get enough rest because they had to be alert.

Abdul was amused by their actions. He knew that they knew he was suspicious but could not do anything about it. He had a field day rubbing it into their faces about how he had a good night's sleep.

It was once again time for Kane's archery training. He was once again required to continuously shoot arrows at a target which was a huge cactus fifty feet away. The adults were given a very huge surprise.

Eight arrows hit the mark this time. Ten hit the areas around the body of the cactus and two hit the ground in front of the cactus. This was huge progress compared to the previous training session.

It should be known that such progress could only be obtained through constant practice but Kane only needed a night's rest to improve. He could slightly begin to understand what the adaptation part of Kane's mutation could do.

It seems like Kane's body could be easily evolved. He only needs a little pressure and would evolve to accommodate such pressure. It could take countless years and multiple generations for other beings to undergo even the slightest evolution but it only took hours for Kane.

He even wanted to introduce much more intense and higher-level strength training techniques into Kane's training. He immediately dismissed the idea as he saw an image of a hulking four-year-old appear in his mind.

He wanted to commend Kane when his face suddenly changed. He stretched his hand and an exquisite green longbow with a glowing white bowstring appeared in his hands. He made a motion of aiming and an arrow seemingly made of light was shot into the distance.

A giant deathstalker scorpion which was almost two meters tall that popped out from the ground as if it wanted to initiate a surprise attack was pierced in the center of its head by the arrow of light.

Not long after the first scorpion was killed, four other scorpions emerged from the ground. They seemed to have some sort of Intelligence as they began to spread out in different directions.

They were about to enact their battle tactic when beams of light penetrated their heads. Their corpses fell shortly after. Kane drew in a cold breath. He didn't even see his master's movements as he shot and killed the four scorpions. It was as if he killed the four scorpions at once. His admiration for his master entered new heights.

"Those deathstalker scorpions should be at the peak of grunt realm. We should harvest their cores to help you advance…" Abel had not even finished his sentence when he was interrupted by Abdul "are you mad? Feeding the core of a peak grunt realm beast to a child who is barely at the grunt realm. Do you want to overload him?"

"That's none of your business besides, I naturally have a plan," said Abel. He could now faintly guess who this Mr. Abdul was. He didn't know if he should relax or be more guarded against him.

They quickly cut up the scorpions and extracted their cores. The way cultivators could increase their powers was to either absorb energy from mana crystals or absorb energy from the cores within beasts with the same elemental affinity. Absorbing elemental energy from the atmosphere was another method but this was a very slow process compared with the other two.

Those in the evolved realm and above could send their elemental energy into the beast's core or mana crystal to create feedback that allows the energy in the core to flow back into the cultivator. Others below the evolved realm could only crush the cores or mana crystals and ingest them at the expense of losing its efficacy.

They had to leave the area because it was filled with the smell of blood that could attract other beasts. That night, they had grilled meat for dinner which was a relief to Kane since they had been eating canned products since they had been on the road.

Before Kane could go to bed that night, he was stopped by Abel who was holding a transparent tube filled with a faintly glowing blue liquid. Abel had already ground a core into powder and mixed it with water. Although the elemental energy content was not even one-tenth its amount before it was crushed, this was the only way he could get Abdul off his back.

"Drink this, it will help you break through grunt realm tiers," said Abel as he handed over the tube to Kane.

"Thank you," said Kane as he unscrewed the cap and downed the contents.