The Dark King – Chapter 100
To the extreme
I would like to thank MrMartinke for doing an awesome job by editing the chapter!
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Hard training continued.
Another seven days went by.
The young instructor seemed to set a seven-day period as a stage. On the eighth day of the archery training, he once again increased Dudian’s indicators. The number of arrows he had to shoot increased to 1600 while the hits on the target had reached 400.
This time he didn’t directly increase it to 500 as if taking into account the physical limits of Dudian’s body. According to their previous studies and assessments, the limit for a hunter’s physique was two thousand arrows. So from their perspective, completing 1500 arrows was a very difficult task.
His assessment was derived from a variety of information and seemed very accurate on the surface. But he didn’t know that when he set the task, Dudian had already reached 2080 arrows.
And, this record was immediately broken in the next day, reaching 2112 arrows!
However, after this, it seemed that he had hit the physical limit as the quantity didn’t increase as fast as before. His target rate had reached 700 arrows. In other words, he could continue to hit the target for first seven hundred arrows straight!
This was a good indicator as it meant that he was an entry level archer.
However, it was only just the entry level of archery. As shooting is stationary and the target area was larger. If he wanted to accurately hit a target in the head or in the heart of a smaller range, the difficulty would rise.
Arrows continuously flew out. Most of them hit the target while three arrows hit the red mark.
Dudian’s actions were stable as his sore, tired arms from yesterday had recovered after a night’s rest. His body has been fully adapted to such a high-intensity training.
The other five trainees joined him on the training ground after he had finished shooting two hundred arrows.
Dudian’s rapid progress has impressed the other five. However, they still thought that the only reason for Dudian’s performance were his magic marks. They felt envy and were a bit jealous.
It didn’t take long for the young instructor to join them. He had always been easy-going as he looked at Dudian and chuckled: “Today, it’s been a month that you have been training here. I believe that your arm has been able to adapt to the training because of the tasks that I have given you for the last month.”
Dudian stopped and looked at him.
“Next, I’m going to teach you a few bow shooting skills. If you can master them you can be considered truly qualified as an archer!” The young instructor smiled as he picked up a black bow and a few arrows from the shelf. He said to Dudian: “Look carefully, this trick is called ‘alignment shooting'”
His fingers loosened and string ejected the arrow.
The arrow pierced into the middle of the heart of the target.
Dudian looked back at the young instructor but heard another arrow hitting the target. He was stunned to see the there is another arrow which had pierced the exact same point.
“You didn’t see it.” The young instructors smiled: “The so-called aligned shooting is firing the arrows in rapid bursts without a pause. The difficulty of this trick is to be stable and fast. Both arrows have to maintain a line. It can be lethal as if you meet a monster with strong defense, then the first arrow would tear the scale, the second arrow would pierce the flesh and blood while the third arrow will be able to take its life!”
Dudian looked and nodded: “I got it.”
“I’m going to give you half a month to master it.” The young instructor spoke in a cold tone: “If you can’t grasp it within the given time-frame a hellish training will be waiting for you!”
Dudian nodded slightly, that he had understood him.
“Remember, the key to this trick is stability. You got to be as stable as you can while pulling the string! ” The young instructor said again as to remind him.
Dudian saw in detail that the arrows were virtually shadowing each other. Almost at the same time when the first arrow was shot, the instructor’s hand was already grasping the second!
Dudian also began to practice this method.
However, he soon felt the difficulty. First of all, when he wanted to do the same as the instructor, he wasn’t able to grab the arrow as fast as he wanted. Occasionally he would catch them but in that case, his speed would slow down and won’t be able to ‘burst’ the way instructor showed.
The young instructor saw that Dudian was practicing and turned away to leave.
Dudian repeatedly practiced.
Another day passed.
He completely immersed himself in shooting direct arrows instead of practicing the way of ‘aligned shooting.’: “How many arrows were shot today?
“Two thousand five hundred and thirty arrows.” The servant replied.
Dudian was surprised as the number of arrows shot by him three days ago was around two thousand three hundred and fifty arrows. Today, he had reached two thousand and five hundred arrows. However, he seemed to be reaching the physical limits of his body.
“Too much input, but did not feel tired at all.” Dudian suddenly saw his fingers had worn blisters and a bit of watery liquid as blood flew out. He wrapped them and went back for dinner.
The next day.
Dudian, as usual, came early to continue to practice aligned shooting.
Dudian had more understanding about the aligned shooting after he did a number of times of exercises.
“The rapid shooting of the arrows. Although the continuous two arrows and even the three arrows are highly lethal but the shortcomings are obvious. Shooting rapidly will lead to the weakening of the strength each arrow will give. The real damage caused by the three arrows wouldn’t be fatal. This is not as good and effective as the normal method. Although it was slow in comparison to aligned shooting, but arrow’s strength and damage potential were much higher.”
“Moreover, an individual’s energy is limited while practicing aligned shooting takes too long and strains on brain power as there is much concentration to be taken into account. At the end of the day, I would be mentally exhausted.”
He decided to go to the extreme!
He had to achieve the ultimate.
Although aligned shooting looked good, fancy and seemed powerful but Dudian felt that it wasn’t worth wasting energy to study the technique. He must excel in the most destructive way which was the normal method that had higher penetrative power and more vital.
Dudian abandoned the practice of aligned shooting and continued to repeat the previous basic archery.
Moreover, he didn’t blindly pursue a number of shots made but instead focused on how to make each arrow’s destructive power even more.