Yi Qiang unclipped his bow and held it at his side, ready for immediate conflict, as he slowly entered the forest. He was, thankfully, passable at melee martial arts, but Yi Qiang would much rather rely on his high Dexterity and Agility to place himself in the proper position to fire arrows, even if he was ambushed.

Strangely, Yi Qiang failed to encounter any animals or other enemies, even after a good 10 minutes of wandering. But he put the reason for that out of his mind, confident he could deal with any threat that should crop up.

And crop up it did. A few minutes afterward, Yi Qiang spotted a clearing, where the dense foliage ceased. From the current distance, little could be seen, but he crouched down nevertheless and set his feet, focusing even more on stealth. I'd much rather be the one ambushing, and that requires that my enemies not be aware of my presence. It's sniper rule number one - common sense.

Finally, Yi Qiang could see into what lay within the forest, his appearance still shrouded by the dense nature. And it shocked him.

A type of humanoid Yi Qiang had never seen before patrolled a large metal fortress, covered by bulky armor and sporting a greatsword at their side. Their faces made it clear they were not friendly, in a permanent scowl with small tusks sprouting out of their face. Barely fazed by the appearance of these fantasy beings, Yi Qiang calmly used Analyze.

Algon Valley Orc

Level 15

Normal

Health: 1100

That seemed... doable. But just to make sure...

Training Bow

Common

Level 1

Damage: 99

Durability: 98%

The player cringed. If he did 99 damage with every attack, it would take a full 11 arrows to take it out. And this was with his Bow Mastery increasing it by 2.6%(Look in the post-chapter note for math). Thankfully, Arrow Pierce, at Apprentice 2, increased damage by 42%(math is annoying, just trust me), so that could be lowered down to... 8 arrows. Oh. And the Stamina cost of that, at 160, wouldn't change much.

But what Yi Qiang didn't know was if Strength value was added onto the damage. Since Strength increased damage, that could either mean that it did so by allowing the use of higher tension bowstrings, and thus, higher damage bows, or it just added a flat value of total damage for each point. Assuming that was true, then if it was 1 damage point per point in Strength, then that would bring it down to... 4 arrows. Nice. However, Yi Qiang had no idea how accurate that assumption was, or if it even applied.

Taking a last look at the orc's current health bar, Yi Qiang fired a normal arrow. If this does more than... 102 damage, then at least I know that it's not just weapon damage on top of passives.

The moment the arrow drove into the orc's exposed shoulder(the armor was somewhat impractical), he hurriedly pulled up the status screen again.

Algon Valley Orc

Level 15

Normal

Health: 435

Swiftly, Yi Qiang sent another arrow into the orc's neck through a spacing as it ran toward him, killing it and leaving him to calculate a bit.

After some thinking and writing on the dirt with an arrow(math as complicated as that was difficult to do in his head), Yi Qiang found that his damage was the sum of his bow's damage and five times his Strength value.

That meant that this would be easy.

Congratulations!

You have leveled up to Level 2!

5 free stat points have been awarded!

Resisting the urge to put all of the new stat points into Strength for the sweet, sweet damage, Yi Qiang thought about it a little first, before realizing something crucial. The higher a stat got, the harder it was to train it. However, stat points would have the same effect on a stat regardless of its value. That meant that until he was essentially no longer progressing, it was a bad decision to put stat points into any stat. It was better just to save them up, acquiring a huge bulk of free stat points that he could apply when he peaked.

So Yi Qiang continued skirting around the border of the fortress, slaying all the sentries, now using Mark and then Arrow Pierce, which didn't reduce the necessary shots at all but would give him valuable experience with both Mark and Arrow Pierce, a full two-thirds of his active skills.

By the time Yi Qiang finished making his way around the borders of the forest, he had reached Level 5 and gained various skill-ups, with Arrow Pierce now at Apprentice 4 and Mark at Novice 10, extremely close to Apprentice stage. He had even gained a skill for sneak, the creatively-named Sneak.

Arrow Pierce(Active, Level 4 Apprentice)

Empower your arrow's piercing power, increasing damage of a single arrow shot by 44%.

Cost: 20 Stamina

Mark(Active, Level 10 Novice)

Mark your target with the will of a marksman, increasing your damage to them from bow attacks by 10%, and increasing your accuracy when trying to strike them by 10%.

Cost: 100 Stamina

So, he found himself at the entrance, a large, unmanned gate. And, as a hotblooded adventurer, there was little left to do but enter.

He first peeked his head past the gate, finding sparsely decorated iron hallways and intimidating jagged edges, each empty from that point of view but without a doubt populated by more orcs further in.

Yi Qiang headed into the leftmost hallway, bow at the ready, an arrow already notched onto the bowstring.

As he turned a corner, Yi Qiang was suddenly blinded by a huge greatsword. He offered no resistance in shock and lack of physical ability as it bit into his face, severing half of his head, before Yi Qiang was enveloped by black for an instant, then finding himself back in the place he started the game. Pain filled his head before he looked at the screen in front of him.

You have died!

Experience lost: 5%

Items dropped: 0

Debuff received: Chosen's Backlash

-10% to all stats

-30% to experience gain

Duration: 20 mins