A week of training with his bow had finally given Cyan some results. The notification that popped up in front of him had proved that.
Increases perception by 1. Increasing proficiency will raise skills level.
The world seemed more vibrant as he cleared the notification, minor details that seemed to have avoided him before became more clear. It was not just his sight that had improved, but all of his senses. The world also seemed to move slower in his vision, the difference was small and easy to miss, and yet he noticed it. As Beka moved to collect his arrows her movements seemed off slightly, like she was reacting a fraction of a fraction of a second too late.
As she returned the arrows to him he quickly drew his bow, the movements seemed more natural as the arrow flew from from the bow. The arrow landed on the target, followed by another and another. All of the arrows but one hit the target, though they did not hit the center. He nodded to himself as he confirmed what the notification had already told him. His archery had improved, his accuracy was much higher than it had been before. The difference was noticeable, his practice all week had only improved his accuracy to hitting the target with half of them.
The speed at which he fired the arrows had not improved, but that was not an issue for him. Hitting the target was far more important than firing a burst of arrows that would simply miss.
It still seemed weird to him to be practicing archery. His massive body and high stats were obviously more suited for melee battle, but the pack and Beka agreed that at least while in this dungeon it would be more efficient for him to use a bow. His massive body was too big of a target for the skeletal archers. Perhaps when his regeneration improved, he had some decent armor. or he had recieved some proper training would it be alright for him to take his rightful place on the front lines, but until then he was to be an archer, supporting the pack and Beka with his ranged attacks.
The pack and Beka had agreed that this would be the best course of action, as none of them wanted to take the risk of him being injured again. Though they tacitly agreed to not explain it to him this way, rather stating that it would be efficient for him to use a bow. Cyan suspected they had come to this conclusion, but chose to keep his mouth shut. After all he would be useless to all of them if he was dead, and would slow down their progress if he was injured like he had been again.
With this though in mind he asked to delay their progress once again so he could continue training. He could now almost always hit the target, but this was a still target and he could not reliably hit the center. The skeletons that they were facing were simply bones, and his arrows had more chance of passing through them than actually hitting something. He wanted to improve his accuracy, enough that at least half of his arrows would hit the center of the target. he would still be almost useless against moving targets, but would be better off than he was now.
Beka and chica discussed it before coming to an agreement. They would give him another week to improve his accuracy, but after that regardless of the results they would be forced to move on. Half a month in this crypt was already a long time, and they were still on the first level.
Cyan nodded, he felt a week should be enough time to improve, and it would give his body further time to heal. The scabs on his lesser wounds had already fallen off, leaving scars on his body and his fur was already beginning to regrow. The burns from the acid however were still scabbed, and began to feel like they were getting infected. White puss mixed with blood would occasionally ooze out of them when he moved. When that happened he would be forced to wash the wound with the water from the fountain.
The fountain was in fact infused with magic and the water had a nourishing effect on their bodies, causing them to have no need for food. The other passive effect of the water was it seemed to improve the infection, slowly healing it even when his body could not. A week should be more than enough time to fully heal the wound, though he could already tell that the right side of his face and shoulder which had taken the brunt of the acid would be horribly scarred. His fur would be unlikely to grow in those areas and he would be left with a horrifying visage.
This would be enough to make a man weep, but it did not seem to have an effect on Cyan. In his mind he was already a horrifying beast, and he was lucky that Beka did not seem to mind. He had expected her to flinch when she saw his burnt face, but much to hid surprise she did not. Her eyes only reflected worry that he was in pain when she looked at him, and each night she cuddled close to him while caressing his wounded face.
Each day became a routine, as he would practice his archery from the moment he woke to the moment he fell asleep. His accuracy and firing rate slowly improved, his arrows getting closer to the center. Finally on the second to last day half of his arrows consistently hit the center of the target, and he received another notification.
Increases perception by 2. Increasing proficiency will raise skills level.
Cyan smiled as he looked at the notification, his hard work had finally paid off. His burns had been fully healed 2 days ago, so he was finally ready to set off. He discussed it with the group, and it was decided that they would continue their journey in the morning.