The Arcane Archer - Chapter 12 Passage

Upon seeing the message that I’ve evolved the friends of the elves title, I blacked out from both mental and physical exhaustion.

Upon waking up an uncertain amount of time later, I found myself inside the small medical room that I visited only once before when I was touring around in my free time.

“It appears sleeping beauty is awake.” Gael said while reading a book.

He continued reading it even though I turned to look at him.

“How does that saying even exist?”

“You’ve said it once before and I thought I should use it too.” He simply said while flipping a page in his book. “So now that you’ve helped us with what we’ve been trying for many years, what are you going to do now?”

I pondered for a while. Now that I better understood magic and learned enchanting which can do pretty much anything (If you have enough mana), what should I do next was the question on hand.

Improving myself is a obvious as I have no clue what else I would expect in this world as I haven’t really explored much of it. Hell, I haven’t even found something which would usually strive me to make myself better! Sadly I’m not some character in a book or something that suddenly gets some random plot point.

“I’m not really sure. I’ll probably leave and start exploring so that I can discover something to do with my life? Who knows.”

Gael continued to real.

“With your otherworldly ability to enchant, you could make a very easy living off of that.”

I gave a small smile, “Yeah but where would the fun be in that?”

Gael smiled too and closed his book.
for visiting.

“How about this then. I’ll give you a map and a couple of items to help you explore the world more so that you can find something you want to do in life. If you never do find what you’re looking for or you just randomly decide that you want to live here, you are free to come and go whenever you want. How does that sound?”

“Honestly…” I gave a big smile this time, “That sounds like a amazing idea.”

I spend the next hour then getting looked at by some healers to confirm that I wasn’t hurt in anyway. I asked if I could learn their healing magic which they said I would have to go to another school to learn so I promptly refused.

Another hour afterwards, I was right next to the slightly blue barrier that was erected around the entire Elven kingdom. On my back was the Elven bow given to me by Zavar and a quiver full of arrows as well. Gael along with the map gave me two daggers, some special even bread, a book, and a handful of throwing knives while constantly saying that I would make a good rogue.

I took each thing and gave him a deep bow before turning around and leaving the barrier. If you looked at the barrier from the outside, it seemed like a regular area with a bunch of trees and what not but since I was a friend of the Elves, it called out to me that the Elves were located right there and that the barrier would allow me through.

Turning away from it, I pulled out my map and started searching for where I should go next. The map listed where the Elven Kingdom was so I used that as my starting point as to where to go next.

The next closest thing from what the map could tell me was around a hundred miles away and it was a simple human village called Cauldivauld. There was also a couple other places listed on the map but those were much further away. With my plan in mind, I put my map into my inventory and started making my way towards Cauldivauld.

[Would host like to assimilate the map into the system? Y/N]

I continued walking and mentally pressed yes. On my HUD, I suddenly got a quest indicator with a arrow marked in the direction I was going but slightly to the left.

‘This seems very skyrim like. Wanna do a quick explanation for me?’

[Certainly! Just like you said, it seems very skyrim like as I took inspiration for your memory as to what would work best for you. I’ve added to your HUD a way to locate a place you marked on your map and if you’d kindly open your map for me-]

‘map.’

A giant map then opened up in front of me that displayed a small amount of area that showed real time passing like skyrim. Everything else besides this portion of the map was blacked out and I wasn’t able to view.

[Just like Skyrim, I’ve also added a real time view to it allowing you to see what is happening at the moment. However, unlike Skyrim, you need to actually explore the map to uncover everything there is.]

I nodded my head in understanding. Just having a map that I could mark a location and see on my HUD was amazing enough. It would be highly greedy of me to constantly ask for more and berate the system if I didn’t get what I want.

‘Thanks System! I know I can always count on you if I need help.’

[Anytime Leo, just make sure to take care of yourself.]

Fixing my path, I continued walking in the direction of the marker on my HUD. The day passed quickly as I took my time just taking in the view and appreciating nature.

This was all fine and dandy until it was starting to get late in the day and I heard a noise in front of me.

Pulling out my bow, I was about to knock a arrow onto the string but noticed a small rabbit hopping in front of me.

‘Oh, it’s just a simple rabbit. Haha, my b-‘

The rabbit’s head turned to me in a fraction of a second and the ground beneath me started to concave. Noticing this I jumped to the side and did a quick roll.

The rabbit’s head continued to follow me as I rolled behind a tree. I reached to grab a arrow noticing that the rabbit’s head turned to me the same time the ground concaved meaning it probably had something to do with it.

As I tried grabbing a arrow, I noticed that I didn’t actually have any. Peaking around the tree, I noticed that they were all laying on the ground as my poor excuse for a roll caused all of them to fall out.

Pulling out one of the new throwing daggers given to me, I quickly threw it towards the rabbit. As I’ve never used throwing knives before though, it was as if I was just throwing a stick at it as it just bounced off harmlessly as the blunt side hit it.

*1 Bludgeoning Damage

[Thanks to your {Adaptability} you’ve gained the skill {Knife Throwing}. You are now slightly better are throwing knives.]

Pulling out another knife, I once again threw it at the rabbit but this time it was blocked by the rabbit somehow raising a column of stone up.

[{Knife Throwing} has leveled up.]

With only 3 knives left, I decided to hold on and get closer to this weird magical rabbit then just throwing them at the rabbit with no effect. Staying behind the tree and making sure not to move much, I eventually heard the stone slide back down into the ground.

Taking another peak, I saw the rabbit slowly making its way towards me. Seeing this opportunity, I jumped out from behind the tree and ran as quickly as I could towards it. The rabbit being surprised by me jumped out hesitated momentarily and in the time I was able to get within a couple feet of it so I quickly threw the knife at it.

*1 Bludgeoning Damage

Only once the blunt side of the knife once again bounced off of it did I realize something.

‘I should’ve just fucking stabbed it!’

The rabbit once again tried to concave the ground beneath me but this time it also added in some pillars around me to make it so that I wouldn’t roll out of my way this time.

Not seeing much of a option, I used my {Basic Magic} to strengthen my legs so that I could jump out. Thankfully enough, before I got to far down, I was able to jump off and just barely get on top of the pillar.

Pulling another knife, I quickly threw it at the rabbit and was thankfully able to hit it correctly this time.

*53 Piercing Damage

The rabbit’s magic immediately stopped and the pillars that I was standing on started to slide back down into the grown.

[You’ve killed a {Earth Attuned Rabbit} and gained 25 Xp and 17 System points!]

I immediately went over and grabbed all my arrows and threw them into my quiver. Next I picked up the Earth Attuned Rabbit and shoved it into my inventory to study later.

‘Note to self, keep some extra arrows in inventory at all times.’