BXBX NOVEL Chapter 44: Darkmoon Longbow
‘Fate fragment?’ Nikolai was confused. He looked at the shabby longbow in his hand and wondered if the system was referring to another item. After all, he couldn’t feel any magical properties from this bow.
[Fate Fragment (inactive): An item that resonates with fate. These items can be activated or used by expanding fate points.]
‘Hm? That’s very vague.’ Nikolai frowned. He still didn’t know if this item was worth taking.
“Was this item ever appraised?” Nikolai asked. The principal seemed dissatisfied with his interest but nodded nonetheless. He walked toward a ledger and pulled an old paper from it.
“The student was convinced that this item was special, but he didn’t know how to use it. He paid for an appraiser to seek the divine wisdom and find out how this item worked. Sadly…” The principal handed Nikolai the appraising results.
[Name: Darkmoon Longbow.]
[Type: Enchanted Weapon.]
[Magical Properties: this item has a 20% of giving the arrows random magical property.]
[Status: Inactive.]
“The appraiser couldn’t find out how to activate this item, so it laid dormant in the vault for all these years.” The principal shook his head. “Even if you activate it, this item only has a chance of 20% of working.”
“I’ll take it.” Nikolai knew that the principal was trying to talk him out of it, but he made up his mind when he knew this item relied on chance. Furthermore, he wanted to find out what fate fragments had.
“Boy,” The principal shook his head. “This item might look special, but all that glitters is not gold. This longbow doesn’t even glitter.”
“Good companions are found, not sought. This longbow looks like a good companion that I discovered by accident. Please understand my choice, principal.”
When the principal heard Nikolai’s response, he sighed and nodded. He took out the bow and handed it over to Nikolai. The moment he touched the longbow, it buzzed in response.
A sharp light flashed in the principal’s eyes, but he hid it quickly. With a smile, he looked at Nikolai in a new light.
“Good companions are found, not sought. I think you just found yours.”
***
Nikolai returned to his room with an extra bag on his shoulder. The principal gave him a quiver of twenty arrows that the student found with the longbow, but they looked pretty ordinary.
The Darkmoon Longbow was pitch black, with distinct lines of wood covering it. It had a silver string that made a beautiful contrast with the black wood; otherwise, the longbow looked ordinary. It had woody protrusions everywhere that made the longbow challenging to hold.
“I need to test it,” Nikolai muttered to himself as he looked around. He spotted the training field from a distance and found that there were no students there.
He walked to the training field with his bow, quiver, and bag. The struggle made Nikolai miss his storage rings, but he had to endure. It was better than leaving his items away from sight.
He reached the training field and looked through the facilities. He didn’t remember what the training field had because Julian used to bully him whenever he entered this place.
The field had a large yard in the middle with several facilities in each direction. The poppy fields were on the far side of the yard while the facilities were on the other.
Nikolai looked for the archery field and found it right beside the fence on the far side of the yard. He walked into it and placed his bags in the locker before locking them.
Nikolai held his longbow in hand and wore the quiver on his shoulder. The archery facility had lockers as soon as one would enter it, and beyond it were the private archery chambers or the field.
Nikolai walked into one of the chambers and closed the door behind him. The chamber had a circular raised platform in the middle, which urged Nikolai to stand on top.
Before he took the test, Nikolai decided to use the crystals he obtained. Each as big as his index finger, he couldn’t believe something so small could make you stronger.
From the 32 fate points, he used two on each crystal for a total of ten. The crystals ate away a third of his fate points, bringing much pain to Nikolai’s heart. However, the returns made him recover.
[2 Intelligence Stats Points have been absorbed.]
[2 Intelligence Stats Points have been absorbed.]
[2 Mana Stats Points have been absorbed.]
[2 Mana Stats Points have been absorbed.]
[2 Mana Stats Points have been absorbed.]
Smiling in contentment, Nikolai walked up the platform. Suddenly, a holographic panel appeared in front of him.
“Welcome to your archery training, student.”
Nikolai navigated to choose the difficulty and the time limit. He took hold of his bow and nocked his arrow as the countdown from ten to zero began.
Suddenly, a panel opened on the ground, and an arrow rack appeared in front of him. There were a hundred arrows in there, and Nikolai could use all of them.
His highlighted perception after the increase in his intelligence stats allowed him to see things more clearly and feel the change in mana more perceptively.
A sphere of glowing mana appeared a distance away, and Nikolai aimed his bow and released his arrow immediately. The arrow zoomed through the air and struck the target, albeit not in the center.
Another sphere appeared, and Nikolai repeated his actions until his muscles ached. The targets appeared one after the other, and some of them moved. He kept firing the arrows until he grabbed empty air. He frowned and looked at the rack, finding it empty.
‘Oh, I used all of them.’
“Training is over. Reassembling the arrows.” The panel appeared again, and the arrows flew from every canny of the chamber back into the rack. “Results are the following.”
[Targets missed: 7.]
[Accuracy: 72%.]
[Mastery: Intermediate.]
[Arrows per Minute: 31.]
Nikolai looked at the results with a smile. He was glad that he didn’t miss his archery training as a ranger, even though he wasn’t that good at it.
‘It’s a good start. However, my accuracy was compromised because I was too hasty. Getting used to the slow but powerful pace of the longbow will be hard as a gunman.’
Nikolai decided that it was time to go back, as he still needed to activate the Darkmoon Longbow and find a way to get intel on Bone. He picked up his arrows and bow before turning to the door.
For safety reasons, the academy made a small window in the door. It was for the regular inspection of the chambers because many students overestimated their mana supply.
From the glass window, Nikolai spotted half a head peeking. As their eyes met, the culprit ducked and disappeared. With an exasperated sigh, Nikolai bolted to the door and opened it.
The culprit couldn’t run away in time and was frozen stiff when Nikolai saw them. With furrowed brows, Nikolai found out that it was a student he met before.
“Spying on people is an offense, Archer.” Nikolai crossed his arms in front of him. The archer from the water class turned around with an awkward smile. “Do you have anything to explain yourself?”
The archer, however, didn’t answer him. She raised her hands, made circles with her index fingers, and placed a fist on her mouth. Nikolai realized that she was mute.