Reina entered the first rest station with a serious look on her face. Instead of rushing to start the first battle just because it was easy, she gazed at her HoloBrace and asked Martin with uncertainty.
"Are you sure it's possible? I've been trying in private, but it's almost impossible to pull off."
Martin appeared above her HoloBrace wearing his usual formal attire and looking handsome as usual. He was just like a mini-Darius, which gave Reina great comfort.
"Madam Reina, it is nearly impossible yes, but only when considering average magicians. In your case, after being groomed by Father for so many months and using such resources, you have more than a 70% chance to achieve it with enough effort." Martin stated with a smile.
Hearing the words from the AI itself, Reina sighed with relief. She then firmed her expression and tightened her grip on her bow. Without dilly-dallying anymore, she rose to her feet and entered the first battle room.
Immediately, the usual 30 level 1 monsters rushed out with menacing intent, hoping to kill and feast on her flesh. Reina took a deep breath and centered herself, before nocking her bow with three arrows.
She then fired them out and watched as they easily created holes through the bodies of the approaching monsters, killing almost 12 of them at once as the arrows pierced through more than one target at once.
This was a basic skill every competent archer needed to have, not shooting multiple arrows, but an intense calculative ability. A quiver could only contain so many arrows, so one had to learn how to make use of each and every arrow in battle unless they had a special technique to retrieve their arrows after they were shot out.
Reina then cleared out the rest of the level 1 monsters then engaged the level 2 ones. Even though she seemed to be having an easy time, the lass' face was flushed with strain and disappointment.
Martin appeared in her mind and spoke calmly. "Calm down Madam, and focus. Allowing yourself to be disheartened due to a setback will fortify the wall that prevents you from achieving your goal. No matter how much effort it takes, you must absolutely not give up until you see the light at the end of the tunnel and walk through it."
Of course, Reina understood this, but the difficulty of what she was trying to achieve and the strain of it was getting to her. She once again nocked three arrows and fired them out, but her face only showed defeat once more.
Martin rubbed his chin and made a suggestion. "Why not use only one arrow at a time instead of three Madam? I feel it should make things easier."
When Reina heard this, she showed an expression of surprise before she gaped and smacked her forehead. "Oh my days, I'm such an idiot!"
Well, it couldn't really be blamed on the lass. She had centered her entire time using the bow on the idea that she was supporting her teammates, so she needed to use more arrows to achieve that purpose.
Up until a month ago, they had been training to take Gunner down, and one arrow was not enough to even scratch the surface of his skin. In the weeks till now, she had mostly been doing the group task with the others and when doing the individual one, she would try to hurry things up by killing faster.
It was only a few days ago that she reached an epiphany and realized how she could drastically increase the power as well as the potency of her bowmanship, so she began acting on it.
Naturally, it was only when she did that she realized just how high the hill she was trying to climb was. She had failed time and time again in private practice and even sought help from Martin, who attempted to assist her.
It was only when Ash suggested they each go individually that she realized that she could use this chance to practice her skill and see if she could maybe achieve a miracle through live combat.
Yet, it proved just as hard as before, and she couldn't even tell if she was close to achieving it or not. She could be at 99% or 0% for all she knew, for it was the kind of thing that either worked or didn't.
So the question now was; exactly what was this lass trying to achieve with Archery that seemed so impossible to achieve even with her stats and the kind of resources she had access to?
The answer to that was quite surprising. It wasn't a technique specific to archery, but rather something new that had likely never been achieved before on Fallon; Magical Archery!
This was the technique of combining a spell framework with an arrow that is fired out from a bow, creating something that was a mixture of the two, a magical arrow!
Fire arrows, explosive arrows, ice arrows, sonic arrows, poison arrows, etc. Some of these could be made with traditional enchantments, but their costs were too high and their quantity limited.
Whereas mana was an infinitely renewable resource that didn't cost her anything to restore, so it was far more cost-effective to take a normal arrow and attach a spell to it than have a special arrow enchantment with a similar ability that could only be used once.
In theory, it was possible for any arrow to be attached with a spell. While there were definitely special materials that could make this fusion even easier and smoother, they would still be inefficient due to the price.
Sine Reina wanted to go exploring the world later in her life, after her Apprenticeship ended, she would especially need to manage this as she wouldn't always have access to premium arrows that Darius provided her in the wild.
It could definitely be said that the lass was walking on the right path to combine her archery and magic together. However, there were more than a few obstacles that stood in her way.
