Shooting at a stationary target and shooting at a moving target was vastly different. When aiming at a stationary target you only had to take into account the windflow and adjust the arrow's trajectory accordingly.
But, when shooting at a moving target, you not only had to calculate the arrow's trajectory, but also read the movement path of the target.
If I failed to anticipate the movement correctly, I would be wasting a precious arrow and I could only afford 15 mistakes.
The various moving targets forced me into a dilemma and I could not choose which one I should go after. If I chose the slow one, a faster target may bump into it and change its speed instantly. Due to these variables, I could not make up my mind.
Time was ticking by and my overly cautious nature was only making me indecisive. At this moment, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and slowly let go of my anxiety of failure.
I thought of all of the moving targets together and now they seemed like one huge agile boss monster in my mind. I had fought such boss monsters in the previous VR game and I didn't have the support of the guidance system back then either. I remembered the strategy I had used then and suddenly this challenge became much easier.
I opened my eyes and did not focus on one particular target but the spots where the targets bumped into each other. Then, I started to shoot arrows, one after another in rapid succession.
I did not stop to look whether the arrow hit the target. No, my sole focus was shooting as many arrows as possible at the spots I identified before.
5… 10… 20… 40… 60…
Just a few minutes later, I reached out for another arrow, but I came up empty. I looked down only to realize that I had used up all my arrows!
Now that I was out of my zone, I became aware of the absolute silence in the Training Ground.
There was no clangor of sword hitting against the dummy nor was there the thump of mace destroying the targets. Noticing the conspicuous absence of these background noises and I looked around.
Stivi was watching me with her mouth wide open. Goku had also stopped his training and was looking at me with admiration.
Then I heard a clapping sound and I turned to look at the source. It was Trainer Basak who was looking at me with a smile of an elder appreciating his junior.
"Well done, Samar. I did not think you would succeed on your first try. You truly are born to wield the bow."
I had shot the arrows but I had no idea how many of them had hit the target. I had even turned off the notification chimes so they would not interfere with my focused state.
Hearing what Trainer Basak said, I quickly checked my notifications.
[You have hit the targets 59 times out of the 65 arrows.]
[Congratulations! You have successfully completed the Quest, (Mastering the Bow).]
[You have learned the Passive skill,
Reading the notifications, I did not have words to say. I was overjoyed by the outcome and I quickly checked the skill description for Bow Mastery.
—
Bow Mastery (Passive)
Skill Proficiency: Initial Stage (0/2000)
~ Deal 5% more damage with every attack using Bow.
—
5% extra damage, huh? I was a little disappointed upon reading the description as I was expecting a Critical Rate option. But then again this was only the Initial Stage of the Skill. The value of the skill would only grow as my mastery over the bow improves.
While I was checking the Skill description, Trainer Basak arrived beside me. He clapped my shoulder hard and just like before I lost 30 points in HP.
"Well done, Deathless Samar! Now that you have a basic idea of how to properly wield a Bow, you can slowly abandon the rigid postures and be more flexible in your attacks."
I was annoyed by the brutish ways of Trainer Basak but it vanished instantly after hearing his explanation. I was enlightened and I became aware of the true worth of Bow Mastery.
Before learning Bow Mastery, I always had to be standing straight and still when shooting the arrow. If I did not abide by this posture, my arrows would either veer off the course or I would not be able to shoot an arrow at all.
However, the Bow Mastery had apparently removed this rigid requirement. I could now move when shooting the arrow without suffering from any penalties.
I still needed to experiment more to test the limits of the skill but just this one feature had increased my survivability a lot!
No wonder Weapon Mastery Skills are a must have skills for all players. One might be a genius in a particular weapon style but unless they could remove the System imposed restrictions on their movements, they could not display even half of their combat prowess.
This was also the reason there was a huge difference between people with high Weapon Mastery and those with low Weapon Mastery. Not only would their damage numbers differ a lot but so would their combat standards.
Just as I was reveling in my gains, I heard Trainer Basak shout at Stivi and Goku.
"What are you two dawdling for? Your training is not over yet. You need to swing your weapons 50 more times as a punishment. Now, go!"
Hearing that, I shook my head with a smile and sat down to check my other notifications.