Jin woke up back in his dimly lit room with pain in his eyes. He noticed his father had been sitting by a desk reading a book. His vision, however, felt a little off.
Jin lifted his body up into a sitting position as his father noticed his awakening and placed the book down.
"Someone found you unconscious on the other side of the mountain, they thought you had been attacked by beasts as you had blood all over your face." Luka sighed as he spoke. "We brought you back and cleaned you up and noticed the blood was leaking from your eyes... You bled for hours and I was afraid you had gone blind because of your white pupils and was worried. Thankfully it seems like you can still see from your reaction."
Jin shifted his gaze from the desk and onto the candle in a daze. "...I met ancestor."
!?
Luka's eyes opened up wide. "You met Lady White? Where? Was it in that forest?"
Jin nodded as he noticed his vision having... improved? It was strange. He could tell apart the minute differences as if his sight could... zoom in?
"She told me she would give me a gift and... Did something to my eyes?" Jin wasn't 100% sure what exactly the gift was but he assumed it was the reason behind his improved vision.
"She appeared out of nowhere and asked me which weapon I'd like to use and afterwards I fell unconscious..." Jin continued to explore his vision as he spoke.
"Weapon... Yes, I was preparing a large variety of weapons so you could test them out and find out yours in a few days. Did you already pick? It's not wise to pick a weapon before you truly wield one but..." Luca fell into thought.
Lady White wasn't a simple existence.
Yes she technically was their great, great grandmother with many more greats in between. She was their progenitor and her blood ran in their bodies but she wasn't just that. She was a powerhouse who had ascended. This was a realm that even Luca could not fathom to even grasp.
'A powerhouse of that level taking interest in a small boy who had just taken a step into body cultivation...' Luca remembered the words of the ancestor during the naming ceremony and the special name Jin had received, Heuk.
The fact that she had given him a gift in regards to a certain weapon meant that Jin's future path had been straightened out in a singular and wide path with that specific weapon.
"Jin... Which weapon did you pick?" Luca asked, hoping his son had picked an orthodox weapon that he had knowledge over. Otherwise it would be impossible for him to teach Jin the basics and Jin would either have to find another tutor or worse, learn by himself through trial and error.
"A bow." Jin responded as he closed his eyes. The pain was increasing the more he kept his eyes open and it reached a point where he could not handle it anymore and had closed them. "After learning basic control over the wind element... I thought using the bow would be the best out of the other weapon choices."
"Oh..." Luca sighed out in slight disappointment. "The thought process isn't wrong but you have a wrong idea. I guess it's my fault for not letting you know earlier but I had planned to teach you this during the weapons testing but there really isn't a singular weapon that gains greater benefits from certain elements."
"For example." Luca continued. "Exploding arrows of the fire element, hyper dense arrows of the earth element and the extremely sharp ice arrows of the water element... Each element just causes a slight change in the fighting style and tactics of a battle depending on a weapon but it's very hard to say one is strictly better than another."
"But wouldn't being able to freely control where the arrow-" Jin started to rebuke but was quickly cut off by Luca.
"A practiced archer wouldn't need to rely on special powers for their arrows to land Jin. I'm not saying the bow and arrow isn't a bad choice, it's good actually. I'm just reminding you to not underestimate your opponents because they use a certain weapon with powers over a certain element." Luca continued.
"Oh... I understand." Jin quickly fell into silence.
"The bow... I can teach you the very basics and training methods but the rest will likely be up to you. There aren't many special techniques with the bow until the qi condensation stage and its mostly practice to increase your accuracy." Luca explained. "I guess I'll gather various bows instead then. Mmm, I'll be gone for a few days. Good bows are hard to come by and since Lady White has given you some favor... I'll try visiting the main branch."
"The main branch? Isn't that weeks away on foot?" Jin reopened his eyes and stared at Luca in shock. They had never visited the main branch before not had even met anyone. His father had always told him that he was an 'outcast' and wasn't part of the main branch.
The main branch was located in the central areas of the whole western mountain range. Due to the various mountains and hazardous paths, most people would take weeks for just a one way trip. And as to Jin's shallow knowledge, even a low level qi condensation stage warrior would take at least a week to make that trip. But making a round trip in a few days... It sounded absurd in his head.
"Haha. You underestimate your old man a bit too much. Don't worry about me and go into the shed tomorrow. I organized various weapons with basic tutorials regarding how to wield them each aside them. There's a few bows in there as well so go play around for a few days before I come back. Who knows, you might even fancy something else in there" Luca chuckled.
"A few bows? There's multiple types?" I asked in surprise.
"Of course, mainly in the size of the bow. Different bow lengths have a huge impact in the fighting style and tactics of an archer. A longer bow usually has more strength but is slower to prep, aim and fire due to its longer range. And vise versa for a shorter bow." Luca explained as he stood up.
"Ahh..." Jin understood. He vaguely remembered the various historic images of the archers of different cultures. How horse ridden archers had short bows in order to easily handle and quickly fire on a rapidly moving creature whilst siege archers had long bows since they could fire at a stationary position in relative safety.
'Chances are... A shorter bow will likely be better for what I intend to do...' Jin fell into thought.
"Go to sleep for now, it seems your eyes need to heal for a bit more. If you can't handle it tomorrow then you can rest as long as you need." Luca walked out the door as he spoke. "Don't strain them too much."
The doors closed and Jin was left alone, lost in his thoughts.