The Dark King – Chapter 99
Over-training
By the way this is how an alchemy station looks like.
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I would like to thank MrMartinke for doing an awesome job by editing the chapter!
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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 has been completed.” One of the servants hesitated for a moment but interrupted Dudian’s training to remind him the instructor’s task.
Dudian said: “I know, continue to change the arrows.”
After finishing a basket he continued to pull the bow to shoot.
He was too tired so he took some time to rest and to restore some strength to be able to continue to shoot.
It was eight o’clock 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?”
“One thousand two 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 a quarter of an hour of effort to finally shoot another 10 arrows. He was satisfied and ready to leave.
At this time, the instructor came over and asked in surprise tone: “Have you finished the task?”
“It’s done,” Dudian gasped.
The instructor looked at two servants who were close-by and they nodded slightly. They knew that Dudian was not fooling anyone. The youth smiled and said: “It’s time to rest then. These one thousand arrows were based on your physical stamina. Others have begun from three hundred arrows of everyday shooting and now have reached eight hundred arrows every day. After all, they have a weaker physique 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 as he turned away from the lawn. He was so tired that both of his arms were slightly trembling.
He had to sleep at a place arranged by the consortium which was in the vicinity of the castle. Dudian went to the dining room. He knew a hunter’s life was totally different from the life of a scavenger. Scavengers are going through hard training, life in poor conditions and eat poor food.
It was totally different for hunters. As long as the daily tasks were completed, the other aspects were very helpful.
A chef was ready to cook meals casually anytime before 9 pm. Moreover, there was no limit to how much you could eat.
Dudian arrived very promptly at 8.30. There was a freshly fried steak and a sharp-tongued foie grass ready for him. It was an aristocrat’s favorite food.
After eating, Dudian returned to the room arranged by the young instructor to sleep.
The room was independent (not-shared) and very spacious.
The night quickly went by. The next day Dudian woke up on time and came to the hall below the castle. He saw lots of children around the age same as him. He saw the trainee archers there too.
“Good morning.” The boy saw Dudian and frankly greeted him: “My name is Texon. I heard you came back late last night. The first day is very hard. Actually, they gave you 1000 arrows to complete. Indeed the people with magic marks have terrifying requirements.”
“You’ll also get magic marks,” Dudian said politely.
The boy’s mouth was upturned into a smile but he didn’t say anything. He said goodbye to Dudian as he went over to get his breakfast.
Dudian also stood in the queue to get the breakfast. After a long night of rest, he still felt a sore feeling from his arms. He knew that today’s practice will be much harder.
After breakfast, Dudian directly came to the training area. The other five haven’t arrived yet, the servants weren’t here either. Though Dudian ignored all of it.
After about a hundred arrow shots, he saw the other five coming over. The young instructor was very free. As long as they completed the tasks given by him, he wouldn’t get to force them to train. It was up to them to arrange and manage their time.
They greeted Dudian and began to train.
The day-to-day life was extremely boring for children of this age because of only having a single training course. But Dudian was patient as he was aware of it and had the first-hand experience of the brutality and destruction in the world outside the giant wall. The desire for strength was getting stronger with each arrow.
This desire had overcome all the other interests that could bring him joy and fun.
It didn’t take long for the day to end.
The young instructor had come several times to see the recruits train. He guided them with the basic positions of the archery, especially the way their shoulder, arms and other parts of the body played a role while shooting. However, he left as soon as giving them tips and tricks.
By eight o’clock in the evening, Dudian’s arms were cramping again. He had to stop as he had done more than the task asked him to do. However, today he barely passed twelve hundred arrows which compared to yesterday was a hundred arrows less. The main reason was that he had over-drafted yesterday and the after-effects were still felt within his muscles today.
Dudian went back to eat dinner and sleep without doing anything at all.
The fourth day, Dudian still went back at 8 o’clock at night.
Moreover, the number of arrows shot had increased to 1500 arrows. After a good rest at night, his arms ache had gone and his body began to gradually adapt to the new conditions. By the fifth day, the number of arrows shot had reached 1600 arrows.
Because of high-intensity training, Dudian’s body adjusted quickly.
The target hitting rate was twice as high than previous results. Almost all ten arrows were hitting the target. Only one or two out of ten arrows would deviate from the target. Of course, these odds applied to the first few hundred arrows. As he shot more the lower the target rates become.
The other five recruits were surprised at his improvement in just a few days.
Dudian’s improvement had left them to be more competitive. They took the training more serious as they wanted to catch up with Dudian at least with the hitting rate.
In a blink of an eye, a week has gone by.
Dudian’s number of shots had increased to 1800 arrow a day.
“You should’ve adapted by now so from today onward your daily shooting requirement shall increase to 1500 arrows!” The young, instructor spoke in cold and strict tone: “Moreover, the arrow that hit the target must reach 300!”
Dudian nodded but didn’t say anything. In fact, by now the number of arrows that reached the target had increased to 500. Almost double the amount set by the instructor. However, he didn’t care much about the tasks set by the instructor as his goal was beyond his own limit. He wanted to squeeze himself to the limit!
As for the completion of the tasks set by the instructor, he didn’t consider them as hard at all.