We reach the archery ‘practice range’. It’s not as I expected it to be. It was quite large with lots of practice targets, and with way more people than I expected to be present here.

What caused this error on my part? Hmm, I start to think from the beginning if I was missing any information. Wait, isn’t this supposed to be the Wind Kingdom?

So that isn’t a completely random name. Maybe the skills they use here have something to do with the wind, and archery, which might benefit from such a skill would be popular. But why was the archery section in the weapons store so devoid of items then?

“Hey, Lena, where did these people get their bows from?”

“Ah! You might wonder about that since there’s a specialist store for ranged weapons in another place. I though you would like a melee weapon so that’s why we went there.”

“…”

“Oh, don’t worry, that store only has bows. The crossbow that you use is practically the last of its kind here.”

I think that maybe this quest would be harder if the people here are experienced with archery.

The quest reward is proportional to the difficulty of the quest. Work hard, young man.

First, I’ll have to observe a bit about what their normal standard is.

The normal range they shoot at is around 50 meters far. That is already coming close to the effective range of the crossbow. And it seems no one else is using a crossbow.

Shut up.

Lena then takes me to an empty spot.

“You haven’t done archery before, right? Come, I’ll teach you.”

She starts by demonstrating the posture before aiming.

“You first aim the bow downwards and hold the string and the arrow, then pull back using the shoulders and your whole body.” She continues on in more detail about what to do.

…

I’d rather not, seeing how enthusiastic she is.

In a few more minutes, she finishes explaining. She even demonstrated a few shots on some targets.

“So, now that you know all of that, how about you take a shot at that target there?” She points towards a target about 50 meters away, one that also has the arrows that she shot earlier.

I arm the crossbow by pulling the bowstring into position.

Wait, I just realized I don’t have any crossbow bolts, and I can’t use the practice arrows that they have here. Hey, Gaia, can you help me?

I do as told and a bolt materializes as if out of thin air, fitting in the slot for the bolt.

I take aim and shoot. It pierces the target right beside the one that Lena shot, a perfect bullseye.

The crossbow is more accurate than I thought. The shot didn’t at all deviate from where I aimed, as if it wasn’t affected by air resistance or by gravity.

As Lena was about to say something, out of nowhere a guy dressed in a gaudy dress suddenly appeared in front of her. No, wait. He dropped from the sky.

No, he really was flying in the air. Maybe this too is related to the wind skills somehow.

“Lena, didn’t notice when you came here. What’re you doing?”

“I’m just teaching archery to my fellow disciple, Gray. I didn’t think the need to announce my presence, it would only attract unnecessary attention.”

“Hey there, I’m Taylor. Nice to meet you.”

He extends a hand as if in greeting, but I don’t accept it.

Wasn’t this ancient china? Where does the part about shaking hands being a form of greeting in ancient china come from?

Also, I can understand his expression in one look. Fake. A fake smile on a person trying to act like something he isn’t. Just that one line from Lena was enough for him to direct enmity towards me, I’d rather not deal with such a person.

“Since you were teaching him archery, how about we compete to see who’s better?”

“Hey that’s unfair, he just started learning archery today.”

“As the high priestess’s disciple he should be skilled enough, right?” He says, sneering.

“I only play with boys.” I reply nonchalantly.

By now quite a few people have gathered around here after seeing that guy fly down here. Lena walks near me and whispers, concern can clearly be felt from her voice.

“Are you sure, Gray? He’s the sect leader’s son.”

“I have my reasons.”

This way it’ll draw more attention, and it’ll be easier to impress some people.

“Let’s go towards that side, Lena.” I say, pointing towards the part of the practice range that is adjacent to another building. I suppose that building is the place where they have all the bows.

We leave behind the stunned boy.

“Right here is fine, there’s enough targets and at multiple distances.”

“Okay, so what will you start with?” Lena asks.

“I’ll start with the closest target that is around 40 meters.”

As we were talking, that boy from before suddenly shows up once again.

“Hey, I challenged you!” He shouts, drawing more attention.

“And I refused.”

“How about this, whoever wins gets to step on the other person.”

“I don’t have any intention to do that. Your filthy clothes will only dirty my shoes.”

As expected, he’s incensed with me saying that.

Shut up.

Before he’s able to say anything else, I give him an offer.

“The loser takes an oath to never interfere with the winner’s path again.”

“Done.” He shouts without much thought given to what exactly I said.

Oaths should be, if my understanding of this world is appropriate, quite powerful, right?

It’s a hit and miss with the ancient Chinese culture that is followed here, but that one was a hit.

Try not to swoon.

“I’ll let you decide what we compete in. So that you don’t complain after losing.”

“You’ll regret that.”

There’s now enough of a crowd around us that will allow me to complete the quest easily. Whether it was worth angering this guy, would still need to be decided when I get the quest reward, but I won’t regret doing that. Perhaps next time Gaia would give me a quest that doesn’t require confrontation.

Ignoring that, I wait here as he tells a few people to prepare some things for the little competition.

I decide to practice a little bit of magic since it’ll be quite useful.

I remember the textbooks from my world. They told to imagine your element as an extension of yourself and only think about controlling it and it should move as directed. Simple in theory but difficult to master.

I try it on a patch of grass near my feet.

The grass wriggles a bit but that’s clearly not enough to make much of a difference. Others might just think that it moved because of the wind.

As I’m doing that, the guy walks up to me, clearly done with his preparations.

“What’re you doing? Admiring the grass?” He once again tries to mock me.

“It’s still much more interesting to look at compared to your shallow personality.”

No.

I look at the things he’s prepared. It’s pretty simple to tell from even just one glance. There’s 3 events, one target at 60 meters, another at 100 meters and there should be one more but I don’t see it.

“Lena will judge who wins in each event.” He says, as if giving me no chance.

“Both of you shoot at the same time so there’s no problems about the order.” Lena declares.

Good move on her part. Taking turns shooting might lead to disagreements.

The first target is very easy to shoot. Gaia once again provides the crossbow bolts for me to shoot and both my bolt and his arrow land side by side at the dead center of the target.

“It’ll be a draw.” Lena says.

The next target is directly behind the previous one, a straight shot isn’t exactly possible. He can angle the shot with his bow but I can’t exactly do that with a crossbow. At least this guy isn’t that stupid.

Ricochet. As long as the bolt doesn’t embed itself into that building’s wall, it should bounce off at a predictable angle. I can use that to hit the target.

We both shoot at the same time once again. His arrow gently flies over the 60-meter target and hits the target at the back in once again the bullseye. And the bolt I shot bounces off the building’s wall, it also hits the center of the target. It’s a great help that the bolt doesn’t at all seem to be affected by gravity or air, that would have made it a lot more difficult.

“Another draw. All the stakes are in the next event then.”

But I don’t exactly need to do that anymore.

Quest completed.

Young man, you have succeeded in showing these uncivilized brutes that archery can also be a form of art.

As a reward, your level is raised by 1 and your arrows can now be guided to an extent.

I can just walk away now as my goal is accomplished, the peanut gallery is impressed enough. But that would be making things too difficult for Lena so I’ll comply for a little while longer.

The guy... What was his name?

Then mister low T it is, low T seems unconvinced about the draw but then I see a grin on his face that tells maybe the next event would be special.

He motions other people to proceed. And it seems they were prepared. They take some creature out from the building where they kept it hidden.

It’s…A jungle cat? It is wearing a cloth that has a target painted on it.

“Let’s see how you do with moving targets.” He predictably sneers.

I certainly have the advantage here. But that’s not what I want to do.

Make the bolt have a forked tip.

“Take aim, shoot!”

At the same time, I exert my control over the grass right in front of the cat which is running in random directions. The cat senses it and quickly changes directions, thus making low T’s shot miss. Without waiting much longer I take aim and shoot.

“…”

“… Gray wins.”

The jungle cat, now with a scratch on its back disappears off into the woods as no one blocks its way.

I shot the cloth off the cat. It was my own inability in doing it properly that it suffered a scratch. But I could see the willingness to live in its eyes. There’s no way I’ll kill such a creature.

The forked tip was helpful in catching the cloth.

“I take the oath that in the future I won’t interfere with Gray’s path.”

At least he took that seriously.

After hearing that I start walking away towards where I suppose the sect hall is.

Lena catches up and walks beside me but doesn’t say anything.