Researching arrows and the science behind them was more fun than Rino thought it would be. The feathers created very cool effects, and after many shots later, Rino completed the chain side quest's quota for the day with several takeaways.

By spacing the feathers differently, an arrow's flight efficiency differed. Four feathers were better for stabilising an arrow's trajectory immediately after release, but it wasn't as important to use four feathers. After all, they were only used to help stabilise an arrow's flight.

When using three feathers, Rino tried tying them in different angles and concluded that even the slightest change in spacing for those three feathers and the direction of the nock for the arrow's release could make it a tornado spinner or a light beam when fired straight.

At the same time, Rino learned the maximum distance an arrow could travel with varying degrees of drawing tension. When a bow was half drawn, Rino could only reach past the huge rock before the weight of gravity started to pull it back down to the ground. If Rino fired freely, a fully drawn bow could reach almost seventy percent more than the arrow that Rino shot at a half-drawn stance. 

Out of boredom, Rino shot a closer target just to see the impact the arrow would make based on the draw strength and found that while the tip was blunt, the speed it flew from the power of the draw allowed it to pierce through objects deeper when the bow was fully drawn. For instance, the wooden arrow was able to pierce through the thick oak barks when fully drawn without suffering much damage to the pointed arrow tips. However, when only half-drawn, the wooden arrow tips were dulled a little. The arrow was also unable to embed itself into the gnarly tree trunk as deeply as the arrow that was fired when the bow was fully drawn.

As Rino resharpened the dulled arrow tip after his experiment, he wondered if adding enchantment spells to them would make these cheaply crafted wooden arrows deadlier than steel-tipped ones. It was worth a shot, and Rino thought of several enchants to add to the arrow.

The first spell he thought about at once was a tracing spell. This would be handy for amateurs like him, although it was also a double-edged weapon that can be used against them if someone picked it up. Homing magic was similar to a curse, and the arrow would not stop chasing a marked target until it made contact or got destroyed. The only problem with such an enchantment was the activation. A homing marker must be placed beforehand for the enchantment to work, and Rino highly doubted any of his shadow slaves were capable of magic. The fairies could help, and this enchantment could make very powerful artillery if Rino ever needed it. Hence, he shelved the idea for now. There was no need to go to such lengths as if he was preparing for war.

Instead, Rino added layers of enchantments to boost an arrows speed and prevent dulling of the tip from impact, similar to the enchantments he added to all the farming tools his minions used.

When that was done, Rino fired the arrow again but drew the bow only halfway. He wanted to see if it would match the power of a fully drawn bow with this enchantment, and the results blew his mind.

The arrow whistled through the air and made contact with the tree that Rino used for target practice. However, it did not stop there and let itself get embedded into the trunk. Instead, it shattered a good part of the trunk because of its boost in speed. The magician was stunned for a moment. He added simple enchantments, expecting regular results with minimal efforts. However, this enchantment was like propelling the worst student in class to becoming a valedictorian.

Speechless, Rino looked at the small hole in the tree and apologised to the oak tree, healing it with nature magic.

Searching for the enchanted arrow took some time, and Rino found it after fifteen minutes. Deciding that it was too troublesome to look for arrows each time they were fired, Rino decided to carve some rune writings on the arrow shaft, putting what he just learned from Kragami to good use. Curses were handy at times, and Rino wondered why dark magicians did not use their craft more smartly?

In his previous world, the same curse was commonly used on slave collars. It was a spell of forced returning that made running away useless for slaves. However, Rino was using this for a different purpose. His enchanted arrows were too dangerous to be lying around for a random person to find and use. Hence. The curse of forced returning carved into them would ensure that they were always bound to the right people. For now, Rino bound this arrow to himself and decided to test the limits of this arrow by shooting directly upwards instead of forward.

The lich prepared himself for flight to follow the arrow after its release and tensed his shoulder with the bowstring pulled tautly. 

Twang!

Rino dropped the bow and used shadow magic to propel him forward to match the arrow's speed. Even as the trees beneath him grew smaller, this arrow had no intention of stopping. Rino was almost as high as the clouds when the arrow finally slowed. Then, gravity did its magic after passing through the lowest layer of clouds as the arrow started to fall back to the ground.

Rino caught it and teleported back to the ground now that he had his answer. When the arrow was fired on a full drawn regular bow with no enchantments, it could fly darn far and would probably be closer to a battering ram for bodies in battle, piercing through multiple skulls before it stopped.

Heck! Given how fast this missile arrow was, Rino would not be surprised if skulls exploded in a trail behind this monster of a weapon.

He shuddered. There were ways to transform that ordinary bow into something stronger. For instance, Rino could enchant gravity manipulation on the bow, and it would turn absolutely anything shot from it into deadly ammunition. 

Thinking about this, there was one more thing Rino was dying to find out. If enchanted arrows on a regular bow were this overpowered, what would happen if Rino used a renewable arrow created from shadows?

Kragami taught him the basics of dark magic, and materialising dark magic was part of emission. Transforming dark magic into something solid, the dark magic emission took various forms from mage to mage. Rino's emission form was shadow tendrils, while Kragami's emission form was a shadow pool. It took more effort for a dark magician to convert their natural emission form into something else and more focus, but Rino was determined to shape it into an arrow.

Nocking his shadow arrow on the regular bow, Rino aimed at the same tree and wondered how effective this would be.

Swoosh!

The shadow arrow disappeared the moment Rino released it from the bow, and for a moment, nothing happened. Rino was about to call this a failure when a huge gust of wind split everything in the direction of that arrow apart with varying forces of destruction.

The lich looked at the path before him created by that one shadow arrow and back to the broken linen bowstring. He didn't think that mana created arrows could be this destructive. Apart from dark magic, Rino did not borrow any other elements. Yet, the sheer force of this shadow arrow ripped apart trees, earth and decimated any source of life in its path.

The tree from before could no longer be saved. It was dead now, and Rino numbly walked up to the huge oak, split apart to pieces. The tree crumbled to dust when Rino touched what was left of that mighty trunk.

Decay. Death.

If Rino did not realise what the dark element did before, he understood it now.

The grass that the shadow arrow passed was now a horrible patch of brown or black. Rino thought the brown dehydrated and dead grass were slightly better than the corroded black grass patch.

The healthy oak tree brimming with life was now withered and decayed. It was so brittle that the wind would take parts of it away like dust. 

This patch of land would take a very long time to recover as the shadow arrow sucked every sign of life from it. Rino tried to sense mana where he stood, but there was very little of it around. The shadow arrow also never returned, as if it was neutralised by all the life it took from the environment.

Rino followed the path that his shadow arrow took and marvelled at all the destruction. If he ran out of arrows to use, a mana arrow was always a good idea, but Rino decided never to use a shadow arrow unless the situation was dire.

Now, Rino thought about the big question as he reached the end of the destructive trail before a mushroom that survived.

Should he enchant bows?