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Volume 3 Chapter 6-1: For the Sake of Survival
After a month passed the trainees had almost completed their basic physical strength training and recently I had been drilling them in bow technique.
Their magic lessons had passed the primary stage and all of them could use 『Perception Expansion』 and 『Body Enhancement』 at the basic level. It was an unbelievable speed of improvement.
It was a result of their own motivation, the slight brain adjustment I had done to everyone except Lucy, the massage and healing magic, and of course the delicious and highly nutritious meals I had been making.
Lucy may not say it, but seeing them all learn the magic that she had taken time and effort to learn properly so quickly must have been frustrating.
However, the time she had spent was not in vain. Due to her own trial and error by practicing the spells herself, Lucy was able to put much more of the spells effects to use. She could change her range of detection and control the level of information she received. These feats were impossible for the other members.
That would be something she would have to realize for herself later.
Today was training for those more advanced bowmen. I would shorten their mountain climbing time and use the rest of the time for that. Normal elves had a range of 100 meters, but unless the members of Nettle had at least 200 meters of effective range I wouldn’t count it as a success. If they couldn’t reach the mark then we couldn’t win the next battle.
「Alright everyone. Today we’ll put on blindfolds and practice firing our bows.」
「Cyril why would we do that?」
「It’s practice using 『Perception Expansion』. Rather than using your eyesight, the information you can get from 『Perception Expansion』 is far greater. Looking using your eyes will always result in your aim being thrown off by elevation, colors, and strength of light.」
「That might be so but that also means that our enemies will also miss in that situation.」
「If you are able to use the precise information given to you by 『Perception Expansion』 then your bow skills will improve by a level. This also means that in situations where you can’t see you won’t be helpless. Being able to hit enemies blindfolded means that when it’s nighttime and your field of view is almost zero you can still snipe them. You can pull off perfect sneak attacks. That will become your forte.」
「Uu…but I’m a bit scared of doing this blindfolded.」
Lucy said with a little trepidation.
It was obvious that using weapons that could kill people while they were blindfolded was a scary prospect.
「In that case do you want to train at night? That should be more practical anyways…」
「It’s much colder at night…even blindfolds are better than nighttime.」
「Then put up with it. You’ll start at my signal. The rule for today is to fire 12 arrows within four minutes. The target is 30 cm large and 200 meters away. We’ll do ten sets and each in which you hit 8 out of 12 will count as a pass. If you haven’t fired all twelve before four minutes then the set will still be a failure. Those who pass will receive a luxurious dinner. Those who fail will eat the ‘cookie’ for dinner.」
The firing time was 4 minutes each and there would be a break of 2 minutes in between each set so it would take an hour to complete. Spending too much time on this would only worsen their accuracy so this time was enough.
The dinner thing was to motivate them and make them feel the pressure. If nothing else they needed a push.
「Chief…are you serious? Eating the cookie for dinner too? Spare me」
「Then do you best. You should be able to aim and fire quick enough, it shouldn’t be an issue.」
「I don’t really get it Cyril…but we just have to do it right? Cyril’s food is delicious after all.」
Their faces began to look determined.
The special 200 gram cookie had 1000 kcal in it. This past month they had been having one cookie for lunch so they were pretty used to it and could sustain themselves on it, but having it for dinner would surely make them sad.
If that wasn’t the case I would not have created such delicious meals to increase their morale. Every night they would get together and eat a delicious meal that I made and enjoy themselves. Being unable to do so would surely be painful.
They all put on their blindfolds and took a stance with their crossbows.
Their crossbows were special made.
I had summoned Kuiro and remade them. I had increased the accuracy compared to the mass produced ones, improved the materials, made them lighter, and individually adjusted them so they could be drawn using 『Body Enhancement』 during the heat of battle.
The metal and carbon-fiber was blessed using the dwarf’s native magic making them more durable than the mass-produced versions as well. Furthermore the grips attached to them had been adjusted to match the hands of their users. I had done my best to craft these weapons into lifelong partners for them.
With this I hoped to raise their survival rate even a bit.
I checked that they finished preparing and opened my mouth.
「Alright! Begin!」