Chapter 5: The Profound Meaning of Archery

  Three days before the intermediate assessment, Uncle Locke called me to his side. Today, he was going to teach me a special archery technique. This skill is said to be very difficult to master because only those who can communicate with magical elements can usually grasp it. However, in this world, people who can communicate with elements are generally mages, so there are very few archers who can master this skill. It's said that Uncle Locke learned this technique from the elves when he was young. Although he knows how to learn it, he can't fully communicate with magical elements and can only exert a quarter of its power. Nevertheless, even with that limitation, Uncle Locke became unbeatable in Father's army thanks to this technique.

  Uncle Rock taught me this skill not because he expected me to learn it, but because he hoped for a miracle that would allow me to slightly communicate with the magical elements and exert one-tenth of their power. Uncle Rock said that even if I had just a little bit of communication ability with the elements, I would have hope to pass the intermediate archer exam this year and directly participate in the advanced archer exam next year.

  Uncle Locke took me to the edge of the forest outside the village and demonstrated this special archery skill. He raised his bow, put on a normal arrow, and stood still. Uncle Locke was muttering something in his mouth, I couldn't hear clearly, but I could see that a faint green vortex had formed around him, which kept rotating and finally condensed on the arrow. At this moment, Uncle Locke loosened the bowstring, and the arrow shot towards a tree fifty steps away like lightning, leaving behind a trail of residual shadow. The arrow was driven by the green vortex to pierce through the tree, pinning it to another tree behind, with half its length inserted.

  I was so shocked that my jaw dropped to the ground. "What a powerful archery skill! Uncle Locke, how did you do it?"

  "This skill is actually a semi-magical one. The primary condition for mastering this skill is to be able to communicate with magical elements, then use incantations to mobilize the magical elements, and at the same time, use a special vibration of the fingers that pull the bowstring to guide the magical elements onto the arrow shaft, and then shoot the arrow out. With the push of the wind element, the speed of the arrow shaft reaches a terrifying degree, piercing through tree trunks." Uncle Lock said with some pride.

  "This skill isn't difficult for elves, as most of them can communicate and manipulate the wind element. However, among humans, those who can communicate with elements are extremely rare. Except for magicians, there are almost no ordinary people who can communicate with elements. Even I can only barely manage to communicate, so this archery technique is almost impossible for anyone to learn. I truly hope a miracle happens to you and we'll see if you have the possibility of using this skill like Uncle Lock. Uncle Lock glanced at me and whispered words of comfort: 'It's okay if you can't learn it, this skill wasn't meant for humans in the first place. I'm just hoping against hope that a miracle will happen with you.'"

  Next, Uncle Locke gave me a detailed explanation of the incantation and guiding gestures. The incantation didn't seem difficult at all, as I had learned the language of the Spirit Tribe from my mother since childhood, so I could roughly understand its meaning, which seemed to be a prayer for the wind element to grant power. However, the gesture was somewhat challenging, as one hand had to maintain the stability of the bowstring while using subtle movements to guide the wind element to gather on the arrow.

  Following Uncle Locke's teachings, I recited the incantation in the language of the spirits. I clearly felt the wind elements around me becoming active, they were like small sprites, surrounding me and happily spinning, jumping, gradually forming a huge vortex. Hmm, it seemed much bigger and clearer than Uncle Locke's vortex. At this moment, I didn't have time to think too much, following Uncle Locke's method, my fingers lightly trembled as I drew the bowstring, guiding the wind elements to gather on the arrow.

  It's now! A voice told me, my fingers relaxed the bowstring, the arrow left a residual shadow, with a sharp whistling sound passing through three trees, and then steadily nailed to the fourth tree. I excitedly shouted to Uncle Locke: "Look, Uncle Locke, I succeeded!" When I turned my head to look at Uncle Locke, I found that he was already completely stunned there, muttering in his mouth: "Impossible, impossible, only spirits can shoot such an arrow..."

  On the way back, Uncle Lu didn't say a word, but I could tell he was thinking about something, so I didn't dare disturb him either. The two of us just walked silently back to the village.

  That day's practice ended like that, and Uncle Locke didn't explain anything, just telling me to go back and rest well, preparing for the assessment two days later.

  At night, Uncle Locke took my father out for a drink and didn't come back until very late. When he came in, his face had an unusual expression, especially when looking at me, with eyes full of inquiry, seemingly with some... excitement? I didn't pay attention to it and went as usual to the small hill outside the village to practice my vision. Lately, I've been feeling that Uncle Locke's method of practicing vision is effective. The small things I couldn't see clearly before, now I can barely make out their outline, which makes me have great confidence in this method. Maybe one day I'll become a godly archer like Uncle Locke?

  For the next two days, Uncle Rock and I went to the small woods outside the village to practice the powerful archery technique he taught me. The only difference was that there were two more spectators, one was Teacher Ellen and the other was my father. Because they were present, I felt particularly excited when practicing archery. From childhood to adulthood, my father had never personally watched me practice. Every time it was Teacher Ellen who told my father about my practice situation, and every time he heard about my situation, he would frown and occasionally sigh lightly. But this time, my father actually came to watch me practice in person, which made me feel incredibly honored. Moreover, I also caught a glimpse of him nodding slightly on the side.

  I'm not sure if it was because my father was present or because Uncle Locke is an excellent teacher, but the archery skills I just learned made rapid progress and I can now pierce the trunks of five trees within a hundred steps. The power of this skill left me in awe - what kind of skill is this that has such great power? Within a hundred steps, who can withstand such an arrow? Even heavily armored knights would be pierced by this arrow! Of course, using such powerful archery skills isn't as simple as just shooting - the slightly lengthy process of gathering elements, combined with my limited eyesight, and after shooting around five times I feel exhausted. These are all obvious weaknesses of this skill, but I'm already very satisfied. I believe that with my excellent survival abilities and this powerful skill, next year I should be able to pass the advanced archer exam without issue. Thinking about this made me feel happy.