Grabbing two training bows and full quivers from the walls, Myeyl informed me it’s usually customary to use our own bows, arrows, and weapons in a regular Tri-Style Competition; however, since this was ultimately a competition to see which of us is the more skilled student, she suggested we both use the same bows and arrows, while picking whichever weapon we preferred to use. I didn’t really have a problem with that, as I had no clue what kind of powerful weapons and arrows a Noble House would have for her to use, and I honestly didn’t want to waste any of the specials I bought from the festival just to win against Myeyl.

We then headed over to the archery range, and I quickly came to realize this was no ordinary archery range. Apart from the archery range being 300 meters long and 100 meters wide, it interestingly had multiple levers for each of the different sectioned rows, and which seemingly were used to adjust the various targets' distances and heights through the usage of some complex machines and mechanisms built into the stone floor. “How ingenuitive...” I admired, subsequently wondering what that flat and round platform in the centre of the archery range was used for—noticing the multiple rings of mechanisms encircling it.

“The first competition we’ll be doing is Distance Shooting.” Myeyl stated, lining up in the row beside mine. “All you need to do is display the maximum limits of your range with the utmost accuracy, relatively making it the simplest out of the five competitions.”

“I’m assuming you’re not gonna tell me how many shots I get to take, are you?” I asked, tugging on the bowstring to familiarize myself with the training bow.

“Nope.” She answered playfully, pulling one of the levers in her row, and causing one of the targets to move 50 meters away from her. “So, are you ready to get this competition started, Eyes?”

Pulling the same lever in my row, I moved my target to the maximum of 300 meters, and said “If you admit defeat now, I promise I won’t make you do anything too bad when I order you around. What do you say?”

“Ha, not a chance!” Raising her bow and shouting, “I’m starting now!” Drawing her bowstring back, she steadily aimed at her target, and released an arrow with perfect form and technique. The shot landed perfectly in the bullseye, but Myeyl mistakenly dared me to do better.

“It’s pretty impressive she got this good in only a month,” Acknowledging her major improvement from the last time I saw her shoot, “but too bad she still has a long way to go to compete against me.” Raising my own bow, I fired an arrow with little effort, and easily struck a bullseye on my target 300 meters away.

Myeyl was left stunned, astonished by the ease of which I accurately fired an arrow from this great a distance. Though having already accomplished hitting a target from 500 meters away, to prove myself a Long-Range Archer to Odelia, 300 meters is basically just a warm-up for me now. Myeyl however didn’t allow this obvious gap in our skill levels to demoralize her, and in reality, she instead almost seemed frighteningly driven by this fact—her eyes clearly gleaming full with determination and resolve. And not easily giving up on the competition, Myeyl increased the distance of her target by 50 meters after each of her shots, until stopping at 200 meters–each time landing a bullseye, and each time becoming more and more accurate. She then strangely skipped to 300 meters, and made one more desperate shot; and whether it was just by luck or not, her arrow landed right in the centre of the bullseye.

“She’s...amazing...” I thought, momentarily losing myself in her pure and radiant smile of happiness. Though shaking my head out of the daze of her beauty, I quickly concluded the shot limit for the competition must be five from Myeyl’s attempts, and casually fired my four remaining shots—tightly grouping them within the centre of my bullseye.

Archery proficiency has increased by 1 Level.

“It really was a nice try, Myeyl, but I think this is my win, yes?” I smugly asked.

“Yes…” Myeyl reluctantly muttered, buzzing in anger at the loss. Right afterwards, she immediately led me to the next competition, angrily stomping her way towards the flat and round platform in the middle of the archery range.

But as I followed her, I couldn’t help but admire her flawless archery, and the sudden spike in skill she just displayed to me, thinking “I never wanted to train with Myeyl because I honestly thought she would hold me back with her lack of archery experience, but after seeing her obvious innate talent firsthand today, as well as that desperate revolve to win in her eyes, she might actually be some fun for me to compete and train against.”

“Okay, I’ll admit you’re amazingly skilled at shooting a bow, but there’s no way you can beat me in the Elemental Manifestation competition.” Myeyl confidentially declared.

“Then I assume we’re manifesting elements?” I asked, presuming from the name.

“Yup.” She confirmed. “Physically manifest any element you can, with as much potency as possible, and boastfully display the maximum limits of your magic in spectacular fashion!”

“Well that’s unfortunate for her.” I smirked, secretly having the perfect Skill for this competition—recalling the Skill I gained from my recent 2nd Class Promotion.

Elemental Affinity: Naturally developing a compatible Elemental Resonance within your Magic Cores, you excel at ingratiating every Element within your body; enhancing your Elemental Control, Efficiency, and Potency. Gain a 5% increase to Control, Efficiency, and Potency of all Elemental-Type Skills. Skill Level based on Magic and Intelligence. Percentage increases by 5% per Skill Level.

Except when Myeyl announced for us to start, I was entirely clueless of how to manifest an element on my own, as I was never able to recreate any of the Elemental Skills from my memory the whole time I was practicing on the hospital roof back on Earth. Though figuring it likely wasn’t cheating, I simply casted Element Arrow (Wind) on an arrow, and tried to imbue it with as much mana as possible. It worked for a moment, exponentially growing the size of the blowing winds by the second, but a sudden menacing message forced me to abruptly stop myself from continuing.

The Skill ‘Elemental Affinity’ has helped you manifest a controllable amount of Elemental Magic, but due to the Magic Seal currently sealing your ‘Mana Magic Core’, and your other Magics Cores having not yet awakened, the maximum amount of Elemental Magic you can safely produce and control has been significantly reduced. Any attempts to go beyond your currently reduced limits will result in a violent internal mana-vein eruption to occur, potentially causing one or more of your Magic Cores to explode inside of you, and almost assuredly permanently crippling or killing you.

“What the hell?!” I exclaimed to myself in a panic. Then remembering the last time an explosion occurred inside my body during the Trinity Ritual, I immediately withdrew myself from the competition, saying “Alright, I give up, Myeyl. This one’s your win for sure.” Quickly releasing my focus and halting the flow of my mana.

“What? But we just got started?” Myeyl complained, with small embers notably beginning to appear from her hands.

“Yeah I know, but I know when I’m beat.” Thinking, “I didn’t know my Magic Core being sealed was causing such a big problem. No wonder why I couldn't recreate any of the Elemental Skills from my memory. Looks like I really do need to deal with this a lot sooner rather than later.”

“Ughhh… What an unsatisfying win.” Myeyl groaned, dismissing her embers and crossing her arms in pout.

“I wouldn’t wanna win like that either.” I thought. But still wondering why we made our way over to this flat and round platform, I asked “What’s the next competition, Myeyl? Does it have something to do with this platform we’re standing on?”

“It does. Although I believe some of the mechanisms controlling Speed Targeting, the next competition, are currently broken at the moment. So I think we’ll have to skip that competition for today.” Myeyl said in disappointment, pointing out some broken gears along some of the mechanisms encircling the platform.

“Too bad, sounds like it would’ve been a lot of fun.” I shrugged, knowing nothing could be done by that.

“Yeah, it’s my favourite one.” She mentioned, “And it really would’ve been fun to see if you could keep up and compete with me.”

“I think you mean the other way around.” I said in retort.

Myeyl was about to wittily respond, but she decided to let it go, saying “Let’s just move onto Arrow Manipulation. Now you aren’t gonna give up on me again, are you Eyes?”

“Depends, does it have anything to do with using Elemental Magic?” Hoping otherwise.

“Some do use Elemental Magic to control their arrows, but ordinary magic and mana works just as fine.” She answered, oddly looking for something on the ground. “Ah, this should be the one.” Myeyl then precisely stepped on the stone floor, pressing right onto a hidden pressure plate, and causing multiple metal poles to rise up from the other mechanisms surrounding the platform.

“Uh, what are those?” I questioned, taking note of the handful of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal hoops on top and around each of the poles.

“Those are the hoops we have to manipulate our arrows through to display our maximum limits of our control over our magic and arrows.” Myeyl stated. “And your goal is to simply fire an arrow through as many hoops as possible—or in this case, more hoops than me, and all before your magic infused arrow runs out of mana.”

“Oh, so like this?” Casting Turning Arrow, I fired a practice shot at the closest hoop, and watched as it passed straight through and circled around to fly through multiple other hoops—passing through a total of 24 hoops before hitting the ground.

“Exactly like that.” Myeyl clapped in approval, looking at me with a sinister grin.

“What? What’s with that look?” I nervously asked, feeling I just did something wrong.

“Well, one of the official rules of Arrow Manipulation states: No practice is permitted on any course you are set to compete on within a week, and any person caught doing so must voluntarily forfeit the current competition, or be forcefully disqualified from participating in any other of the current Tri-Style Competitions.”

“Woah, woah, wait a second there. You can’t just suddenly bring up some arbitrary rule I didn’t know about and expect me to follow it! And how can you even bring up official rules to a ‘friendly competition’ anyway?” I rightfully argued. “What happened to you not wanting an unsatisfying win?”

“The rules are the rules.” She smiled mischievously, “And who says this isn’t a satisfying win for me?”

“That's bullshit!” I bitterly replied. “I thought this was a competition to see which of us is better, but now you’re just playing dirty to win!”

Myeyl laughed hysterically, saying “Oh Eyes, this was never about seeing which of us is better. Though if you must know, I don’t need to play dirty to win against you.” Confidently drawing her bow, Myeyl rapidly infused her arrow with magical swirling winds, and then fired it without even aiming. I completely expected the arrow to fly right past all the hoops entirely, but it suddenly took a sharp turn with the flick of Myeyl's hand, as she then fully displayed her incredible and unconceivable control over her arrow; manipulating it fly through over 100 hoops around us before finally running out of mana and falling to the ground. “Like you said, Eyes; it really was a nice try, but I think this is my win, yes?” Repeating my words right back to me.

“Fine, you win this one." I grumbled, reluctantly accepting the loss as I didn't have the first clue on how I could manipulate an arrow like that. Though not forgetting what Myeyl just said, I asked "What did you mean before? About this never being about which of us is better?” Vividly recalling her say as much only a few moments ago.

“Well I do actually want to know which of us is better, but the only reason I suggested we compete in a Tri-Style Competition was to help you understand how each of the competitions worked—in a way you would actually pay attention to my explanations.” She explained.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Wondering what that has to do with anything.

“Odelia told me you weren’t that good of a listener when she tried to explain things to you,” Myeyl said matter-of-factly, “and that you only really paid attention when she was actively demonstrating something, or when you were actively participating yourself.”

“Maybe that’s true, but why’re you going through all this trouble just to explain some competition to me?” I questioned, curiously.

“It’s because I knew Odelia wasn’t gonna tell you about the Trinity Archery Competition that’s being held next month.” Myeyl revealed. “She thinks it’s a pointless distraction, and a pretentious competition that no self-respecting Trinity Archer should want to participate in. For and I quote, ‘The differences in the greatness and skill of Trinity Archers are plain to see, you and Eyes don’t need a silly competition to state the obvious for you’. Except she’s wrong! We both need to participate, and we both need to do extremely well—ideally having one of us at least win. That's why I had to make sure you were ready and prepared enough to compete against me.” explaining, “The Trinity Archery Competition is not only a competition that’ll shine a bright light on us and our skills for the whole city to witness, but it’ll also bring undoubtful renown and rightful glory back to our Master, Odelia, for teaching us! My Father too if he really was serious about teaching for the first time.” Her words sounded genuinely earnest, but they also caused another new Quest to appear.

Quest

Trinity Dark-Horse Candidates:

Participate in the Elven Kingdom’s upcoming annual ‘Trinity Archery Competition’ alongside ‘Myeyl Fre’Nddare’, and place at least 3rd in whichever Archery Level you are eligible for; Unawakened, Awakened, Ascending, or Transcending.

‘Myeyl Fre’Nddare’ must also be trained enough to place at least 2nd in the Unawakened Archery Level on her own, or be unprecedentedly trained to be eligible for a higher Archery Level at her young age.

Hidden Quest: Place 1st in whichever Archery Level you are eligible for. Reward: Gain renown and glory for yourself and your Master(s) equal to ‘Myeyl Fre’Nddare’ and your placements, and receive the 2nd or 3rd Place’s Prizes. Hidden Reward: Receive the 1st Place’s Prizes in your Archery Level, and gain the Title of the ‘Greatest Trinity Archer’ in your Archery Level.

Will you accept:

[Yes] or [No]

“An archery competition, eh?” The idea instantly piqued my interest, “Well why didn’t you say so in the first place!” accepting the Quest without a second thought.