Ikyk moved through half-empty valleys and streets, enjoying the view of torches and magic lamps. It was currently nighttime in the game. Even though the game had a day/night feature, players didn't really need to take any necessary breaks, since most of the shops were open even at night.
During the night, players didn't have any limited sight as in real life. Moreover, different types of monsters would appear in the wild during the night, which gave players even more reasons to look forward to night play, since they might be lucky to find a rare monster.
After arrival at the Training Center, Ikky paid 1 copper fee once again. Amount of people inside did not change much, from the last time he visited. Appears that people did not change their original goal, as information about weapon mastery and Novice gear was not yet publicly distributed yet.
Ikky equipped his Bow and stepped onto the field, welcomed by a new quest.
[New Quest - Training]
Shoot at dummy 100 times
'Hm? Shoot hundred times, not hit? Easy quest'
Ikky tried to shoot the dummy standing approximately 30 meters away.
(Miss)
"..I knew it" he signed.
He pulled the string again but didn't shoot immediately as before. He first took a very deep breath, aimed, and when he felt comfortable, purely based on his instincts, he released the arrow together with his breath.
(-1)
[Bow skill increased by 1]
He continued to shoot dummy for a period of time, often needing to go and gather the training arrows that he received. He felt stupid not thinking about arrows, if the training center quest would not provide him with some of them, then he would have nothing to shoot.
After a while, several already known windows appeared in front of him, but there was one more extra, compared to the last time.
[Quest completed]
[Bow level increased to max effectiveness]
[Would you like to proceed to the next Quest?]
[Would you like to claim a reward?]
[New Active skill has been acquired]
-Increase your accuracy by an additional 50% (your accuracy rating can not exceed 90% while using Aim assistant)
-Consume 1 MP per arrow
-Damage output decreases by 20% while using Aim assistant
-Attack speed reduced by 0,2 hile using Aim assistant
'Hmm, skill for people that have no Bow skill?' Ikky thought it was a pretty good idea. Basically, anybody just had to shoot 100 arrows completing a quest to receive this Aim assistant skill, it doesn't matter if they hit or miss all hundred shots. Moreover, players would eventually level up the Bow mastery through the quest, naturally increasing their accuracy rate, as he did with both Bow and Dagger.
'However, consume MP? I don't think I saw MP anywhere in the interface,' he looked at his Status window, but he couldn't find anything.
'Maybe I need to spend some mana to see it?' with this new idea and as a last resort and activated Aim's assistant and fired at the dummy.
(-1)
After he shot the arrow he noticed a small blue bar at the edge of his sight, which naturally disappeared again when his MP recovered.
But Ikky didn't pay any attention to that blue bar, instead, he was looking at the new window in front of him.
[Your hidden mastery is trying to interact with your skill. Would you like to evolve the skill?]
-Aim assistant -> Guided arrow
-Increase accuracy by 50% -> Arrow will automatically search and hit the target
-MP consumption 1 MP -> 5 MP
-Damage output reduction by 20% -> Depends on the route of the arrow, 0-30%
-Attack speed reduction removed
"This is crazy.." even though the MP consumption was higher, it was basically an Aim bot, a cheat.
He pressed Confirm without a second thought, but an additional window appeared in front of him.
[Using your hidden mastery on this skill will put it onto a 15-day cooldown, are you certain about the evolve?]
Ikky paused for a second. Even though this was very good, he was quite confident with his Aim. Since he had some experience with the Bow from his childhood, and thanks to the Bow mastery, he was confident about hitting the target 7/10 times, if he used Aim assistant he could make it up to 9/10. Even though 90% success to hit was still bad compared to 100% aimed arrows, he was worried that he might miss other interactions if the skill is on the cooldown. For example what if this interaction would appear when he used the Poison attack, and what if it didn't appear in the future ever again because it was on the cooldown when he would use the Poison attack for the first time, on the other hand, what if he rejects this evolution, maybe it would never appear on Aim assistant ever again. Since he didn't know how it works, it left him in a bad spot.
'If only there was more information about the hidden effect..'
In the end, Ikky decided to try his luck and accept this offer, it was better to accept free goodies, rather than rejection in the hope to get something better, because it was not guaranteed, that anything other would appear as a replacement.
(Confirm)
[Your hidden mastery evolved your
[Hidden mastery has been put on cooldown: 14 days 23 hours 59minutes]
[New Quest - Training 2] With a happy mood and vision of a bright future, Ikky accepted a second quest.
***
After 3 hours he finally finished all of the Training quests. It took him longer compare to the Dagger training, mainly because he had to gather the arrows from the dummy every once in a while.
But all the quests were worth it, as dagger training rewarded him with Dagger mastery, Throw dagger skill, Evade passive, and even Critical passive, the Bow quest also had its own rewards.
Ikky checked all of his new windows and was very happy, even though Evade and Critical passives were shared in both Quests, he received another Passive, which allowed him to shoot while moving. This particular quest was the longest of all the quests taking him more than 1/2 of the time, but it was worth it. The downfall of the passive was reduced accuracy of shooting while moving, but his new Guide arrow skill was able to make up for that loss.
However, when he reached the previous milestone, he was stopped by the level restriction for the next quest in the chain, but this time it was different.
[Would you like to proceed to the next Quest?]
'Hmm, I'm level 5 and if I remember, the requirement for the next Quest was level3, so I should be fine right?'
(Yes)
[New Quest - Underground Arena]
Slay 50 monsters in the underground arena
'Underground Arena?' Ikky was thinking about where to go when his thoughts were interrupted by the Guard
"Excuse me, adventurer, would you help us with the monsters that occupy our underground armory?' he asked.
"Yes, no problem" Ikky answered, he already accepted the quest anyway.
"Then, please follow me," the guard said while going to one of the caged doors at the end of the training field.
"Behind those doors, there is a staircase leading to the underground, once you are inside, try to kill as many monsters as possible, if you are unable to handle it anymore, you can simply return, any questions?"
"No questions, see you later," Ikky nodded with a smile and entered the doors.