"Qitu!"
A dull whistle cut through the air as a small arrow left Ken's new bow. The arrow failed to hit its target– a meter wide, circular wooden plank held up by a sturdy rod forty meters away.
"A rookie shouldn't set targets so difficult," said a voice from behind. Ken put his bow down and turned around, ready to execute a perfect salute for the sentry commander.
With a height of less than four feet, commander Zaka didn't emanate the aura of intimidation others of his rank or station did. He looked old, maintained a well groomed beard half as long as his body, carried a distinct potbelly, and wore luxurious clothing that hardly seemed ideal for combat. Nor did he have the common strictness of veteran officers.
With a casual gesture, he waved off Ken's salute and picked up an arrow from the large bucket by their side. The sentries training with Ken looked on from their practice lanes curiously.
"These arrows are passable for only one purpose– that is to carry the archer's will, be it through combat spirit invocation or magic spells. Without those factors, your arrows are no better than toys. If you think you can rely on shooting these to perfect your archery skill, you're a fool." Zaka bent the two feet long, wooden arrow in his hand until it broke with a pop.
"I've been watching you shoot with decent accuracy when the target was less than 30 meters away. But you have to optimize your precision within this distance before going for targets that are placed further. Use real bows and arrows after your accuracy crosses eighty percent under 30 meters. No warrior should proceed with gaps in his discipline."
"I'm a mage, sir commander," Ken said reflexively, and regretted it almost instantly. The eavesdroppers all over the practice ground suddenly widened their eyes and doubled the intensity of their scrutiny. Most goblins didn't start out with talent in magic. Even the Totemic or Shamanic magic that the Goblin race specialized in was usually a result of awakening latent artificial talents.
Right now, Ken was disguised as a young, unusually tall goblin from Viridian City, his identity forged by the Duke's officials. Being recruited to the Duke's latest sentry squad with no apparent connections to the core city was already a striking enough detail. To add the rarely seen class of a mage there was hardly an advantage in his shoes.
"A mage?" Zaka's drooping eyes didn't contain as much surprise as the other goblins. "I guessed that from your obvious chants every time you shot an arrow. You've been trying to cast an acceleration spell on the arrows. But being a mage doesn't mean you're allowed to cut corners, does it? Since you're training here, you must attain the average accuracy of your peers without spells as well. Train your magic AFTER you've reached that level of precision, and resort to those spells only when you deem your normal archery skills incapable of taking down a threat."
The old goblin dropped the broken arrow into the bucket and left Ken's lane to instruct another trainee. Slightly puzzled, Ken turned to the nearest trainee and asked, "Hey, why does it seem like the Commander disapproves of magic?"
The goblin gave Ken an unfriendly, almost disdainful look. "All three of his sons were killed in an invasion by some crazy necromancers some years back. The mages in our city were practically useless baggage at that time, from what I heard. Of course he doesn't like magic. If the Duke himself wasn't a mage, he would've put a complete restriction on mages throughout the city."
It finally dawned on Ken that he had somewhat misunderstood the attitude of the locals towards mages. It made sense now why the Duke and his men had no qualms in squashing nosey mages on Capera River, and nobody had been particularly concerned about their disappearance. No wonder he had faced so many obstructions while looking for temporary careers in the city! No wonder most of the mages he met in the city were so underdeveloped!
He also realized why the Duke had told him this morning that he didn't have any resources for training rookie mages. Ken hadn't believed Roshoka at that time, but the Duke had promised that he would gather some valuable resources for Ken. Placated by the promise, Ken had joined the Ordinary Rank recruits with his new identity.
Joining the sentry teams was actually Ken's own idea. Roshoka wanted to keep him within his reach, but it wasn't convenient for him to arrange it without attracting the suspicion of the native, influential clans inside the core city. Ken also didn't want to be locked up inside Roshoka's tower just to discuss battle strategies and analyze the news of the ongoing politics in Queen Emora's court and the large provinces under her rule.
As a sentry, he had a lot more room for maneuvers. He could get himself acquainted with the core city, its people, and the flourishing goblin clans whose influence wasn't limited inside this Dukedom. In fact, many of these clans were mere branches of larger, stronger clans with centuries old history and unshakeable foundations. Speaking of clans...
"What do I call you, by the way?" Ken said to the goblin.
"Merik, from the Silver Birch Clan." The goblin's answer came in the format he had expected. Inside the core city, few people went without using their clan's name. Even bastard children could bear their parent's clan identity, just not the privileges.
"I'm Ken," he said in return, which made the goblin pause while attempting to nock an arrow onto his bow. After a moment, he replied. "Okay, now stop bothering me."
Coughing awkwardly, Ken stepped back into his lane and decided to follow Zaka's advice on growing his archery skill.
In his 'previous life', Ken had not put much effort into training his body in the way of warriors, only pursuing the peak of magic relentlessly. But now he probably had a chance to put his feet on both classes and make rapid progress without a hitch.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Sounds of arrows hitting their targets never ceased inside the training ground for the next hour. By the time Ken finished shooting the last arrow in his last bucket, he was the only trainee left there, the other trainees having left for close-quarters combat training. Due to his underdeveloped physical attributes, he had been deemed suitable only for archery as a warrior. Of course, such a weakness would have gotten him kicked out of the recruitment process had the Duke not sent the selection team a private message.
The target thirty meters away resembled a pin cushion, perforated by dozens of arrows, almost unusable now. Ken put his bow down, satisfied that he had managed to hit eighty percent accuracy. The new dexterity attribute of 0.25 points was making a significant impact on his limb coordination, improving his stance, aim, and muscle stability. Added to that were the small enhancements of his strength, speed, and stamina.
Among the recruits, his archery skill within the range of 30 meters could now be called average!
While he rested, Ken examined his stats, something he had done just before the training session. The reason why warriors could keep up with mages was because of their harsh and methodical combat training, which rewarded them with more experience points than ordinary menial tasks. Before coming to live inside the core city, Ken had spent hours in the wilderness everyday performing much more laborious tasks, but the experience points he had gotten from those jobs could not compare to this two-hour-long archery session.
[ Race: Human ]
[ Talent ]
[ Racial Talent: - ]
[ Artificial Talent: Casting Awareness (Common) (Passive) ]
[ Bloodline Talent: Bloodline Extraction (???) (Passive) ]
[ Class: Mage ]
[ Class Aptitude: Mana Affinity (3) ]
[ Class Grade: Ordinary ]
[ Grade Level: 4/9 ]
[ Level Exp: 0204/2000 ]
[ Spell Library: ... ]
[ Level 4 ] [ Warrior Class: Locked ]
[ Exp: 0150/1250 ]
[ Attributes: Strength (1.55); Speed (1.25); Stamina (1.90); Dexterity (0.25); Magic Affinity (4.30) ]