The Dark King

by Steffen Schmidt

  Dudian's heart beats accelerated as he heard the youth talk. He remembered his previous shooting experience which was not fruitful at all.

  "First, we are going to test all aspects of your talents. " youth smiled and said: "We should go to training ground. " He pushed open the door to a hall. There was very open space behind the door. All kinds of trainings props such as arrows, wood, shaking horses and a cage with the sharp swords were inside. Dudian sweated a bit at sight.

  "Since you want to be an archer, first we are going to see how good is your shooting talent." The youth went towards the arrow target and waved over by motioning to Dudian to move over.

  ...

  ...

  Chapter 97: Two items

  "Use few arrows and give your best." Youth brought out a black bow and arrows from a column and handed them out to Dudian while encouraging him.

  Dudian reached over and grabbed the bow. It was slightly lighter than the original hunter bow. But it would be still very heavy for the most scavengers. He took out the arrow from the quiver and pulled the string. He aimed at the distant target.

  The target was 30 meters away. Sharp arrow sped away away and hit the target. But it didn't hit the heart but deviated almost half the way.

  "Very good. Have you practiced before? "Youth looked at him as he was surprised.

  Dudian nodded: "A few days."

  "A few days ... ..." Youth whispered and nodded slightly. He handed out a black strap: "You should cover your eyes. Let's see how you hit blindly."

  Dudian nodded. He grabbed the bow after being blindfolded. He mentally searched for the location of the previous target's position. Although he could use the sense of smell to help him easily find the target but he avoided doing so. He wanted to know what he was capable of. Was his talent as an archer good enough?

  Whoosh!

  An arrow rapidly shot past and nailed to the target.

  Dudian took off the strap and saw that the arrow had nailed to a similar location as his previous shot. The deviation was not significant.

  "It seems that you have quite the talent as an archer." There was a trace of smile on youth's face as he spoke.: "Although your constitution is over the top but it is extremely rare to get such results after few days of practice. You should give good efforts maybe you will be the second hunter to reach the silver level as an archer."

  "Did a hunter reach silver level in archery in the consortium?" asked Dudian.

  "Well, there are total of eight hunters who are silver level in the consortium. Two knights, three warriors, two scouts and one archer." Youth continued: "There are few who choose to be an archer. Mainly because of poor combat capability. If there is no help to containt the prey it is very difficult of archers to hunt. Most of them are too dependent on the team. Therefore its rare for an archer to move up. You gotta have excellent skills."

  "Archer's have poor individual combat capability?" Dudian could not help but glance at him. His choice was based and fancied because in his perspective the archers had the most individual preferences while hunting. So their combat cababilities had to be the best?!

  However, he'd agree that archery skills was hard to amass.

  After all, the warriors and knights often fought with monsters in the front so their abilities upgraded very fast. But the archer's were supporting form the back. 'Practice makes perfect' didn't apply to them much like the other professions.

  "Let's try your talents with other professions." Youth came up with Dudian to the second area. There were few wooden puppets in here. All kinds of different weapons were placed next to a shelf. There were swords, iron whips, hammers and other weapons of different length. Except the spears. The spears were the exclusive symbol of the Knights.

  "Attack the wooden puppets with different weapons until you break them. And find one which is suitable for you." Youth laughed.

  Dudian nodded. He picked up the sword, came towards the wooden puppet and began to hack it.

  He felt awkward and uncomfortable as he continued to hack it many times.

  Dudian immediately knew that the sword was not suitable for him so he replaced it with the dagger.

  Relative to the sword, dagger was smooth. But he put it down to change the weapon as there was no force behind the dagger. It would tire him down.

  He tried other weapons. Iron whip, hammer, swords... One by one Dudian tried all of them. Ultimately he felt that the dagger and swords were more comfortable to be used by him rather than the other weapons. The youth also graded his performance and came to the same conclusion after the evaluation.

  "Your warrior talent is also good but your archer talen is still better. Let's look at your knight talent." Youth said.

  Knights were totally different from the knights of military. Although the fighting were similar but the knights of the hunter headquarters were more important as they fought outside the giant wall. They would undergo a rigorous examination and will be awarder the Order of the Knight. They are purely focused on combat outside the giant wall.

  Dudian sat on a dummy horse and held a spear. It was constantly waving and he felt very awkward.

  Youth looked and shook his head. He took Dudian for the last test.

  Scout's main ability was to hide and escape on time. There was a cage which had swords and spears in it. It was shaking and making all the weapons inside to move. There were no particular rules and everything depended on person's reaction speed to determine if he was up to the job.

  "Put on this," the youth handed a heavy armor suit to Dudian.

  Dudian immediately put on the armor.

  He went into the cage. He was encircled by the swords and spears. The cage began to shake.

  Dudian quickly dodged as his eyes swept around to check the motion of the weapons. There was a silver light caught on his eye so he quickly bent to dodge the stab. Everything was based on his instictive reactions to the surrounding situation.

  Nevertheless, there were two or three times that he was stabbed. But there was the protection of the black armor which resulted in no injuries.

  Soon, the test ended.

  Youth opened the cage: "Geez! I did not think you have such a sensitive skills. Although your consitition have been modified because of the magic marks but to have such a good reaction is awesome. You should switch to be a scout. Because of your latent talen you can be a silver hunter very early on. In so many years of my experience, you are totally in top three of the scout talents that consortium was able to grab. No, top two!"

  Dudian did not expect to get this evaluation. He was in joy but it was not enough to change his mind.: "I still like to be an archer. I would want to kill the enemy from 1000 meters away."

  "This ... ... okay." Youth sighed in regret. He didn't insist as it was only a simple test. People could show some talents but it was not entirely accurate. Many people were not good at first but would improve later on. He had seen many examples such as that. Moreover, the key to everything was the interest shown by the hunter towards the occupation. That's why consortium didn't mandatorily choose the occupation and let the hunters do the choice optionally.

  "Although your archery and scouting talents are high but do not be complacent. Next, you will be trained by the consortium and will be given a year to become a true hunter. " Youth earnestly said: "Your training time will be only one-third of the other trainee hunters but you have magic marks and all aspects of your physical condition have been enhanced. After a year, consortium will send you over the giant wall to hone you in actual combat, if you aren't good enough by then."

  "However, you are more aware about the dangers of the world outside the giant wall than other trainees. So give good efforts. If you are lazy today, tomorrow you will be dead."

  Dudian faced the youth and nodded: "I know."

  "Well, let's go to the hunter training field. " said the youth.

  Chapter 98: Thousands of arrows

  Archer's training field was located on the other side of the castle
near the river. It was a very wide place with the grasses but nothing else. At the moment, there were five figures standing there. They had bows and arrows. The targets were 100 meters away from them.

  Four of them were men while the fifth was woman. Each had two servants by their sides waiting to deliver arrows or other needs.

  Youth came to the venue and patted his palms. Five of them stopped and turned to look over.

  "I'm here to introduce a new companion to you. Actually, in a sense your predecessor. " said the youth as he pointed over to Dudian: "His name is Dean and he will be training with you today onwards."

  All five of them checked Dudian. The first impression was handsome while the second was quiet.

  "Instructor, he is a newbie right? How come he is going to be our predecessor? " One of the white skinned youth's frowned.

  Youth smiled: "Dean used to be a scavenger but accidentally got the magic marks. He is a worthy hunter but lacks of vocational skills. He will study here for a year to graduate and naturally will be your predecessor unless you can finish your training before he graduates. "

  All of them were surprised, they couldn't help but take few more glances at Dudian.

  The youth came towards a vacant shelf: "This is your position. Because of your physique, you have to shot at least thousand times before your training is over. You won't be able to eat before you finish your training. So when thousand shots are finished then you end the training for today."

  Dudian nodded. He knew about the cruelty of the world outside the giant wall more than the others. So his purpose in training was not to simply complete the task given by the instructors but to improve his own survival skills.

  "For the first seven days, I won't require anything but shooting 1000 times a day. However, afterwards there will be requirements such as exact hits." Youth's previous easy-going attitude had changed.

  Dudian nodded.

  The youth had apparently arranged for two young servants to stand before the vacant track in advance. One of the servants handed over the bow with difficulty to Dudian while the other got the arrows ready.

  Dudian took the heavy bow as it was lighter than a feather. He aimed and started to shoot immediately.

  The youth got bored of watching so he said to Dudian: "If there is anything you need tell those two. They are the servants who are responsible to cater your needs during the training."

  Dudian nodded slightly and continued to shoot.

  Initial training was only repeated archery. It's aim was to improve the accuracy of the arrows. It was the most important way of attack by the archer. Because of an arrow error, it may lead to companions tragic death in the claw of the monster. Therefore, the requirements regarding the accuracy was almost at point where they wanted to archer to metamorphose with the bow and arrows.

  13 year old boy who was standing next to the Dudian looked at him curiously. He wanted to know what kind of powerful effects would the magic marks have.

  Soon, the boy was disappointed as Dudian's archery level was worse than him. After 10 consequent shots Dudian hadn't successfully hit the target even once. All of them were off target.

  "It seems that hunter's specialty is nothing more than physical buff, nothing special." The boy wasn't concerned about Dudian anymore as he continued with his own archery training.

  Dudian repeatedly shot the arrows. He gradually grasped the feeling after dozens of the arrows shot. He was able to understand the visualization of the target, grasping the distance with the actualy position, deviation of the arrows, injection of strength, deviation of arrows, angle changes and many other things as he practiced.

  It would be extremely difficult to shoot a target 100 meters away in the old days. But Dudian and the five trainee hunters were not ordinary people from the old days. Dudian knew that the trainees have received 'blessings' as they could easily pull the bowstrings.

  The more you were able to pull the string the more benefits there were. First of all you would be able to shoot farther of the distance. Second benefits was that the accuracy would be higher.

  Fundamental principle, of closer you shoot, easier it is to hit, lied in the strength of the shooter!

  "If an ordinary person shot after fifty meter the arrows will decline as the strength will weaken. Moreover because of the airflow there will be deviation from the target. But in my hands, this heavy bow will have the same effect when the arrow reaches 80 meters as if it was 10 meters away from me. So the arrow will still be in heyday of strength. Stronger a bow, much better it will withstand the tension. It seems I will need a good bow!" Dudian fumbled with the feeling of shooting, but also thought of the future plan.

  Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

  He constantly shot the arrows while the servant at the side would help to fill the basket.

  After two hundred arrows, Dudian's target hitting rate was significantly improved. Basically, he would hit two out of 10 times. But because of his improved physique, once he was skilled enough the target rate would increase rapidly.

  However, it was the first stage and the target was entry level. So difficulty would increase as the time passed!

  Boy next to him took a break. Unintentionally he caught a glimpse of Dudian's target. He was stunned as 30 of Dudian's shot had already nailed onto the target. However, at the same time the boy had only shot 160 arrows. Even if Dudian was faster than him, but there was a small gap. So even though Dudian couldn't be compared with him but his skill was improving at an astonishing rate and was more than enough to reach the instructor's requirements.

  "Change targets," Dudian said.

  A servant immediately put on a black armor suit and carefully ran over to renew the target.

  Dudian didn't take a break but continued to shoot.

  He made a shot and it hit the target.

  Dudian shot out and once again the target was hit.

  Dudian continued shooting.

  Soon, five arrows out of ten were hitting the target. Although three arrows out of five were hitting the most outer edge of the target but the results were very good.

  Dudian thought of the undeads outside the giant wall. He narrowed his eyes and aimed the target's head as it was the deadly part of the undeads.

  After four hundred continous shots, Dudian felt soreness in his arms. He stopped to rest so that his arms could slightly restore.

  Soon, at dusk, the sun went down.

  Dudian had shot eight hundred arrows. However, his successful hitting rate was declining as the soreness in his arms increased by the each shot. However he kept shooting as today he was purely exercising his arms and getting the feeling of shots.

  At this time, five trainee hunters had already completed their respective tasks and were panting because of exhaustion. They said few words to Dudian before leaving.

  Dudian stood as the sun set. There were drops of sweat dripping from his face as he continued to shoot. After every shot, a voice will emerge from his heart advising him to stop to rest. However, every single time he would think of the undeads and the beasts outside the giant wall. He would think about their ferocious appearance and about the helpless feeling that he got when he was chased after by them. Then his blood would boil and he would continue to shoot.

  Inertness is innate, but insistence is your choice.

  ...

  ...

  Chapter 99: Over-training

  Dudian still had his bow and arrows. Each pull was extremely difficult even painful but he still shot an arrow. The two servants who stood beside Dudian looked at each other in amazement. They had given him the 57th basket of the arrows. Each basket had twenty arrows in it so he had already gone past the 1000 arrow mark given by the instructor.

  "Your excellency, your one thousand arrows task for today have been completed." One of the servants hesitated for a moment but interrupted Dudian's training to remind him the instructors task.

  Dudian said: "I know, continue to change the arrows."

  Finished the basket
he continued to pull the bow to shoot.

  He was too tired so he took a little rest to restore some strength and to continue to shoot.

  It was eight oclock at night when Dudian's arm shook as he couldn't pull the bowstring anymore. He knew that he had to stop so he asked the young servant who was next to him: "How many arrows?"

  "The twelve hundred and ninety arrows," replied the servant.

  Dudian took a breath as he thought in his mind: "The difference is ten arrows to round it up." He intended to rest for a while.

  After the intermittent rest, Dudian spent quarter of an hour of effort to finally shot another 10 arrows. He was satisfied and ready to leave.

  At this time, the instructer came over and asked in surprised tone: "Haven't completed yet?"

  "It's done," Dudian gasped.

  Instructor looked at two servants who were closeby and they nodded slightly. They knew that Dudian was not fooling anyone. Youth smiled and said: "It's time to rest then. This one thousand arrow was based on your physical stamina. Others had began from three hundred arrows of every day shooting and now have reached eight hundred arrows every day. After all they physique is weaker than yours. So we will gradually increase the amount in your training. Don't neglect and be lazy! You got me?"

  Dudian nodded.

  "Go back and have a good rest," the young instructor waved his hand to dismiss him.

  Dudian handed the bow and arrow to the servant, turned away from the lawn. He was so tired that both of his arms were slightly trembling.

  He had to sleep in a place arranged by the consortium which was in the vicinity of the castle. Dudian came to the dining room. He knew that hunter's life was totally different from the scavenger's. Scavengers are going through a hard training, live in poor conditions and eat poor food.

  It was totally different for hunters. As long as the daily tasks were completed, the other aspects of the material enjoyment was very advantageous.