Closing the Menu, I finished up the rest of my breakfast, and Odelia randomly asked “May I see and touch your back, Lord Eyes?”

“What? My back? Why?” I asked, completely caught off guard by such an odd request.

“I feel that you are doing things that should be considered impossible at your age,” She said, while already walking behind me, “though seeing and touching your back will reveal the truth and answer all my questions.”

“I mean I guess you can,” As I completely removed my cloak to show her my bare torso, “but I don’t know what you think you’ll find back there.” Odelia’s slightly cold hands then touched my back and almost seemed to be searching for something.

“There...there is no trace of them.” Removing her hands from my back and covering me back up with my cloak again, “They are not there at all, however feeling your skin does confirm your young age to me.” Odelia walked back in front of me and this time looked carefully at my front torso—tapping her finger on her lip.

“Hey, could you at least tell me what you’re looking for? What isn’t there at all?” I inquired, wondering what she expected to find.

“I thought you may have been lying about your age and not knowing a Style already, as well as hiding your tattoos with Invisibility Magic; but there truly does not seem to be anything on your back or your front.” Odelia replied, still tapping her finger on her lip.

“Tattoos? Why would I have those?”

“It is required after learning a Style to be marked with a special tattoo on part of your body—traditionally on the back or the front, and usually given to you by the Trinity Archer who taught you.” Odelia explained, “Yet I found no signs or the basic marks on your body whatsoever, which could only mean you truly do not know a Style.”

“Well I told you so—Wait, does that mean I have to get tattooed later!?” I exclaimed, feeling slightly anxious about getting a tattoo.

“Many have tried forgoing the Trinity Tattoo, but those who do have severely hindered or halted their potential in becoming a Trinity Archer entirely." Odelia warned me, "And in the best cases of that terrible choice to make, one would will still add 50-100 more years to their already long training.” She then explained, “The Great King Ven’Thyl created the Trinity Tattoo for a reason; the technique and the magic imbued within each part of the tattoo will help suppress any already learned Styles from overwhelming the ones unlearned, as well as eventually guiding one to combining the 3 Styles in unison, along with greatly enhancing and affecting one’s progress in becoming a Trinity Archer.”

“Adding 50+ years to training is a no go, so I guess I’ve got no choice. I just hope it doesn’t hurt too much.” I then brought up, “That means you should have them too, right Odelia?” she nodded yes, “Then can I see them?” curious about what they’d look like.

“Of course, my Lord. Just give me a moment.” Odelia without hesitation began unlacing and loosening her black leather chestpiece in front of me, and I immediately turned away too to give her some privacy. When she was done, she said “The overall design differs from person to person, depending on who created each part of the tattoo, but the overall structure is the same for everyone.” Slowly turning around, I saw Odelia facing away and holding her breasts, as she then moved her partly braided hair to the front and revealed her back to me.

Tattooed on Odelia’s smooth grey skin was a full back tattoo made almost completely out white ink—making it visually prominent on her darker skin tone—and was surprisingly moving and rotating in a circle on her back. “Woah, I’ve never seen a tattoo move before, but man does it look cool.” I thought to myself, looking at the fine details of the tattoo.

The tattoo was pretty simplistic in its design, only consisting of 3 defined isosceles triangles—one blue, one green, one violet—and 3 layers of runic circles encircling them. Pointing outwards and connecting the others two points in the middle, the triangles were contained in a outer layer of runes, with another layer of runes at the halfway point of the triangles—though never overlapping onto them—and lastly an inner layer that circled the space in between. But sticking out like a sore thumb, a poorly drawn sword was directly in the center of it all.

“Mine and Zebey’s Trinity Tattoos are quite basic in design compared to others," Odelia informed me, "for Master was very traditional and strict in his teaching, which of course included any additional personal designs we wanted. Though we were able to eventually convince him to allow us one; mine a sword, and Zebey’s a bow.” pointing to where she thought it was.

“I don’t want to sound rude by insulting my Master’s Master, but have you ever thought your Master was just a bad drawer? and maybe that’s why he didn’t want to add any personal designs?” I figured, not understanding how one could draw a simple sword so poorly.

Odelia let out a little chuckle, “Yes, Zebey and I came to that very same conclusion when we saw each other’s sword and bow. So in hindsight, maybe it was a good thing Master only allowed one personal addition.”

I nodded in agreement, “Oh, you can put your chestpiece back on by the way. I got a good look at it.” turning away again.

While she did so, Odelia said “I hope learning that does not make you worry about your own eventual tattoo, my Lord. I promise I am quite the decent artist, and give my students all the additional designs they wish.” mentioning, “Which I thought might be in a few decades, but witnessing you accomplish something I thought was impossible, it may be much sooner than I could have ever expected.”

“Should I think of a design to add to my tattoo? Or maybe I should stick with the basic one? I mean it didn’t look half bad?” I contemplated the choice, but hearing Odelia turn back around, I thought “But that doesn’t matter right now, I still got to focus and learn the 3 Styles first.” Looking forward to learning more Skills.

My mornings were spent with Odelia teaching me the many other Skills in the Magic Style, though she explained to me that I only needed 5 out of 10 for her to consider me a Magic Archer. Then when she left to go train Myeyl in the evenings, I spent the rest of the time secretly figuring out exactly how to learn all the Skills I was shown, as I would never willingly miss out on something related to archery; and already knowing my own greedy obsession could cause me to fail the Quest, I made sure to utilize the same method I used to learn Wield Mana.

The Eye Of An Elder Cyclops allowed me to clearly see Mana and Magic, but that alone wasn’t enough; what I needed was to see more. So using the Subclass Skill ‘Seer’s Eye Sacrifice’—a Skill I completely forgot about—I able to sacrifice the abundance of Goblin Eyes I’ve collected to enhance the visual powers of the Eye Of An Elder Cyclops—one minute per eyeball. And what it gave me was complete visual clarity in how exactly the mana inside my body could be manipulated to achieve the results I wanted.

Dedicating the next few days solely on training and learning—only taking short breaks to eat or bathe—I returned back to my archery obsessed self, only being capable of thinking of how to be a better archer and how to learn all archery techniques I could. My archery obsession was what always drove me to accomplishing something great, something impossible, and this time was no different. Time quickly passed by, and before I knew it, 3 days had already passed and I learned all 10 Skills Odelia taught me.

Ensnaring Arrow: Conjure two strands of Mana on the tip of an arrow, and ensnare the first target you hit. Cost 100 Mana. Ensnare and Strand Strength/Length based on Magic and Skill Level, Number of Strands increases by 2 per Skill Level. Explosive Arrow: Compacting Mana within the tip of an arrow, it immediately explodes on impact. Cost 150 Mana. Damage and Explosion Radius based on Magic and Skill Level.

Though after I learned the last Elemental-Type Skill, a new message appeared.

Skill Creation

Having learned all the possible Elements for an Elemental-Type Skill, you are given the choice to perfectly combine all the Skills into one and create a whole new Skill, or leave them as they are and develop them to your own desired preference.

Will you create a new Skill:

*Choosing 'Yes' will cause you to lose the following Skills: [Lv.1 Fire Arrow], [Lv.1 Ice Arrow], [Lv.1 Lightning Arrow], [Lv.1 Stone Arrow], [Lv.1 Wind Arrow], [Lv.1 Poison Arrow], [Lv.1 Light Arrow], [Lv.1 Dark Arrow].*

[Yes] or [No]

"Oooh! I can create a new Skill!" The idea excited me, though I noted "But if I leave them as they are, it says I can develop them to my preference—whatever that means." I heavily contemplated the 2 options for a few minutes, but I ultimately came to the conclusion that there must be a good reason the message popped up, and that leveling one Skill will be a whole lot easier than 8 of them—especially since I haven't even learned the other Style's Skills, or even fully leveled up the ones I already had.

Combining previous Skills... Creating new Skill... You have learned the Skill: [Element Arrow] Element Arrow: Imbue an arrowhead with a chosen Element, and gain the partial Effects and Damage-Type it's associated with. Gain a bonus Elemental Damage equal to 5% of the Arrow and Weapon's Attack. Choose from: [Fire], [Ice], [Lightning], [Earth], [Wind], [Poison], [Light], and [Dark]. Cost 125 Mana. Damage based on Element, Magic, and Skill Level; Effects and Status Chance based on Intelligence and Skill Level, Bonus Elemental Damage increases by 5% per Skill Level. Fire- Burning hot, ignites flammables, and has a slight chance of causing the 'Burning' Debuff. Ice- Chillingly cold, sharpens arrows, and has a slight chance of causing the 'Freezing' Debuff. Lightning- Shockingly erratic, strikes anything near, and has a slight chance of causing the 'Stunned' Debuff. Earth- Solidly heavy, strengthens arrows, and increases penetration and impact. Wind- Gaseously light, unaffected by wind, and increases speed and distance. Poison- Venomously damaging, degrades Vitality, and has a slight chance of causing the 'Poisoned' Status Debuff. Light- Blindingly bright, illuminates everything, and has a slight chance of causing the 'Blinded' Status Debuff. Dark- Dreadfully gloomy, weakens Sense, and has a slight chance of causing the 'Hexed' Status Debuff.

"Huh, it really did just combine them; now I wondered what the actually difference is?" But I was clueless, as I didn't even bother reading the Skills I forgot since I was too focused on only learning them as fast as possible. "Well I'm sure I'll find out later." Deciding to head back up and rest for the night.

The next morning, Odelia expected to start our 4th day of training, but when I claimed I already learned 5 out of the 10 Skills I needed, she of course asked me to show her proof. Then to prove to her that I did, I decided to pick Ensnaring Arrow, Explosive Arrow, Element Arrow (Fire), Element Arrow (Ice), and Element Arrow (Lightning); and with the display of my already learned Skills, Odelia simply stared at me speechless.

"Good thing, I only decided to show her 5, or who knows how she'd react if she found out I learned all 10." Making sure that was all, I asked “That's all I needed, right? 5 out of the 10 Fundamental Skills, and the Required Feat of learning Wield Mana?”

“Y-Yesss...” Odelia stuttered, still baffled.

“Then that’s one Style down, two more to go!” I cheered loudly, taking one step closer to becoming a Trinity Archer.