“What did you see?” Crosse asked, his curiosity about Magic still evidently intact.

“Her spell,” Mike replied, as he looked down at the raw mana that he had controlled, it was almost all gone now, having dissipated into natural light. He let it go and channelled more into the Mortal realm, under his Control.

He took a step to the edge of the platform and pressed his hand to the outside of the railing where an odd growth of wood would likely be less noticeable. Then he cast his new spell, focusing on that aspect of the Light mana that he had felt from Ina’s spell, though both the deftness and scale with which she had used it were vastly beyond his ability.

The Light mana sunk into the wood, but for the first time the spell mana didn’t just vanish from his control, he could feel it still, wanting direction, so he commanded it to grow out into a branch. The spell obeyed and after only a few moments all the mana he had used, more than 40 Light mana, was gone.

A spindly branch had grown out of the side of the railing, less than a couple of centimetres in width and only about thirty centimetres long. It had taken about 10 seconds, but Mike wasn’t sure what he had expected. This was a great example of exactly how much mana had been in that surge of a spell.

Mike looked up from the small stick to Crosse who had followed him. He was looking down at the tiny branch with eyebrows raised, he flicked his eyes up to Mikes. “That it?” he said, the corner of his lip coming up slightly.

Mike rolled his eyes. “You were going to teach me how to use a bow?” he said, lifting the longbow that was still in his hand.

“I was. Though after our meeting with the elders at noon, I would very much like to know how you did that,” Crosse said, his interest only slightly masked by his performance.

Mike snorted, “Sure, though I don’t know how much I can help, I’m not sure if I’m doing this on my own or if this thing is just doing what I ask it to,” he said, raising his arm that currently had the tattoos unhidden on it, the AI apparently seeing no reason to re-disguise it after it had already been made.

Crosse frowned slightly, “You said you don’t know exactly how it came around? What do you know?” he asked, obviously very interested in the tattoo. He began to walk back towards the archery range.

When they got there, Crosse handed Mike an arrow. Mike took it, he hadn't seen the man grab one from one of the numerous stocks of them about. The arrow itself was entirely wood, sharp and thin at the tip. Thin hairlike protrusions that looked like roots protruding out in neat rows at the other end, likely to act as fletching.

“Now, let’s see you draw that thing with an arrow in it like you are supposed to,” Crosse said, leaning a hip against the railing and watching Mike with his arms crossed.

Mike knocked the arrow to the string under a convenient metal nub that was on it, then raised the bow. He looked down the arrow at the range and pulled back the string as far as he could. Which turned out to be only about fifteen centimetres.

He held the arrow there for a few seconds before he relaxed his arms and let out a breath, then he felt the distinct sensation of a notification from the tattoo. He glanced at Crosse who was making a thoughtful frown. “You are a little stronger than I expected you to be. Hand that one here and I’ll get a more appropriate one for teaching you. If Lady Ina deigns to bond you to Connor’s bow it will adjust itself for your use, giving the most appropriate draw weight for you,” he said.

Mike nodded and handed him the bow, he went to the side where the other bows were lined and unstrung it and placed it back, then grabbed a narrower, though not much shorter bow. Mike held the bow and found it not much lighter than the previous one, though the limbs of the bows had a more outward curve to them, curving back around again towards the ends of the limbs.

“A recurve bow?” Mike asked, feeling some nostalgia. He had only used a bow once back on Earth, in primary school, he had gone on a camp in grade six. They had gotten to sleep in cabins and try out new things, one of which had been archery. He had very much enjoyed it, loving the high focus on skill and less on general aptitude. like so many other sports required.

He had gone home from that camp and asked his parents if he could do archery, looking up all about it on the internet. They had meandered about it and eventually decided that it was too expensive and inconvenient. When he could just play soccer with his older brother. He didn’t blame them, it wasn’t like his school had an archery club or he had anywhere to .really practice it, it really had been inconvenient.

One of Crosse’s eyebrows rose again. “You are rather well educated for someone who can’t remember past a few days ago,” Crosse said with a smirk.

Mike had to cover another wince. He really wasn’t doing well at pretending to be an amnesiac peasant, despite his Novice level in acting. To cover for the reaction he had the AI give him the notification that it had alerted him of.

You have unlocked the Physical Skill:

Governing Stats

Requirements

Mastery

Max Mastery

Description

Bowmanship

DEX

PER

10 DEX, 8 STR

Amateur

Novice

Bowmanship is the Skill that teaches you how to handle bows, both in and out of combat. At amateur levels, it teaches you how to properly draw and aim accurately while stationary.

Nice! That would probably make this a little more pleasant, though he didn’t know how it would play with Crosse actively teaching him how to do things.

“What’s that one say?” Crosse asked as he saw the window appear.

“The A-Spirit gives me Skills, they are how I learn things faster, Like how to speak. The one that I just got is a skill for Archery called ‘Bowmanship’ because it apparently likes to follow a naming scheme.” he explained, eliciting a look of suspicion from Crosse.

“Bowmanship aye? Well, that is as good a name for it as any, so how does it help you learn it? Does it control your body?” Crosse asked.

Mike shrugged then nodded. “That’s kinda what it feels like, though the Spirit says that it alters my muscle memory. Making it so that my body already knows how to do the actions properly and does them instinctively when I try. By getting used to the actions I get better at the skill,” Mike explained, though he didn’t go into Magic or Mental Skills, as he wasn’t entirely sure how they worked exactly, despite the AI’s explanation.

He was starting to think that eh AI needed a proper name, he had been calling it spirit to Crosse, and AI to himself, but were either accurate? He needed to think of a name that described what the AI did as much as what it was.

“There is also a limit for the number of Skills I can use at a time, that is supposed to go up as I get better, so I have to swap them out when I want to use different ones, which does this to me,” he said as he opened his Skills window, willing it to show only the Physical Skills.

Skills

Equipped

Governing Stats

Mastery

Level

Physical Skills

Skill Slots

2

Knife FIghting

✓

AGI/DEX

Amateur

3

Stealth

✓

AGI/PER

Amateur

2

Unarmed Combat

STR/END

Amateur

1

Bowmanship

DEX/PER

Amateur

1

He moved the Checkmark from Knife fighting into Bowmanship, he probably wouldn’t be learning to stab people any better just yet, but he had already gained a level in Stealth just by mimic Crosse. As he did that telltale total physical freeze came over him, though it felt slightly different in a way he couldn’t describe for each aspect’s Skills.

Crosse watched and frowned at Mike’s sudden complete stillness, “Well that is an inconvenient handicap on a very useful ability. So it alters your muscle memory? Show me, draw the bow again,” Crosse commanded.

Mike obeyed, nocking the arrow once more and pulling it back. This time he felt the Skill’s assistance, and the draw weight of the bow wasn’t too high. He was able to smoothly draw the string back to his cheek with the nocked arrow just under his eye, the shaft of the arrow resting atop the grip of the bow in a groove obviously for the purpose.

Mike felt his breath slow down and his back straightened. His feet adjusting slightly. So that his knees were no longer bent, though one foot was now at an angle to the other. Mike kept going, following the feeling as he looked down the arrow at the second nearest target. He let go of the string and the arrow shot out.

It missed, sailing about a foot above the target. Mike blinked then scowled as he heard Crosse chuckle. He looked to the older man and watched as he stood straight from his leaning position.

“That wasn’t bad, the posture is a little different to what I would recommend, but otherwise it works, I’m curious where this spirit learned that style," Crosse said, so pointedly not asking that he may as well have been shouting.

Mike didn't answer. Only partially because he didn't know for certain, but he had watched quite a bit of Olympic archery, and that posture had seemed familiar. Though more practical.

"Well, are you going to teach me how to do it properly then?" Mike asked, even though he was pretty sure that if he just kept trying, he would get the hang of it eventually.

Crosse did show him, He taught Mike every minute detail of what he had done wrong the first time and when he pulled back the bow with an arrow knocked again, It barely felt like the Skill was working.

They stayed up there for hours, Crosse showing Mike how to fire a bow. He taught Mike how to stand, how to breathe, and how to grip the bow. By the end of it, Mike was hitting the first four targets consistently. Mike smiled, despite the strain, he was feeling in his arms and shoulders from the continuous drawing of the bow, when he fired the bow and hit the target that was about thirty metres away. The furthest target he had hit yet.

Crosse nodded approvingly. ”You weren’t kidding when you said that you learn fast, you somehow manage to stop making mistakes immediately after I point them out,” he said. then glanced up at the sky through the canopy of golden leaves that surrounded them. “It is about time we head towards that meeting,” Crosse said his mouth turning down at the corners.

Mike saw his solemn expression and nodded. Crosse showed him how to unstring the bow he had been using and put it back where it came from. Then they made their way down the steps from the platform.

As they made their way down Mike asked something that had been bothering him, “What are these hunter elders going to do? Punish you in some way for what happened to Connor? I know I haven’t spoken up on this yet, but I don’t think his death was your fault.”

Crosse sighed as he walked in front of Mike on the narrow stair. “I don’t know if I agree with you, and I know that Gonal definitely doesn’t. The hunter elders are those of us hunters who lived long enough to retire, there are 7 of them, and the retiree age is 50. There are currently 87 hunters in this village. I hope that gives you some idea of the survival rate of hunters.”

Crosse shook his head, Mike unable to see his expression, only the white peppered blonde hair on the back of his head. “Some of them will agree with you, others won’t. We will see.”

They reached the walkway that had Crosses quarters on it and continued towards the next set of stairs.

Before they reached it though Mike felt something. He turned and saw that Ina’s tree had burst into light again. The Light Magic ran down her bridge to the nearest tree but didn’t fully envelop it as it had before. It stopped at the levels of the bridges and continued along them, then Mike heard something ominous. There was a loud sound of a gong striking, then again this time coming from the trees that the pulse of Magic had spread too.

When he heard the sound Crosse straightened and had his bow in his had almost faster than Mike could perceive. “Beast!” Crosse said and started running down the stairs.