The Arcane Archer - Chapter 28 Rationality Or Instinct?

Author’s Note- Before we start this chapter, I want to say that this is slightly different then the usual chapter. What you’ll read just below this is Leo’s thoughts about something and it’s something I wanna try focusing on later. So because it’s a bit different and the way I tried formatting it, the chapter might not be the greatest. I tried though and that’s what matter! … Hopefully.

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Trust my instincts or listen to a rational mind? This is what I thought of while unconscious.

In some stories (and sometimes the real-world) when people trust their instincts, they’re able to dodge things they didn’t know of, have a sense of what to do properly, or convince the brain what’s the right course of action.

On the other hand, you have people who rely upon their rational mind to solve a problem. They use their mind to tell their body what is right and what’s wrong. They use it when they know their instincts are incorrect and based on their genetics fear of something.

But what is right?

Often in stories you hear about how they focus entirely on one or the other but then always make fun of the other. They then also insult anyone who doesn’t follow their choice of thing to follow.

By now, I had opened by eyes while thinking about this. My mind had wandered to what the general was doing and made me question what to do. If I followed my mind, I might’ve been able to understand that he was going to do something different the second time. If I followed my instincts, I might’ve been able to properly dodge or understand that he was going to attempt some sort of trick.

A few minutes passed as I thought about it. During this time, a few other dwarfs noticed that I was awake. They didn’t try to start a conversation or anything but just stared at me in confusion as to why I was just staring at the ceiling and saying nothing after being beat up so badly.

Eventually, one of the dwarfs did start a conversation.

“Excuse me lad, but why are you staring at the ceiling?” He asked

“Thinking about what’s better.” I replied flatly

The dwarf turned to the others and shrugged.

“Well we have training in an hour, and I don’t think the General would like to hear that you’re staying here instead of coming back to training now that you’re fully healed.”

My mind temporarily went back to the beating the General gave me. I groaned in contempt at the thought of moving but eventually sat up. Now that I was no longer staring at the ceiling, I was now able to look around the room and question how I got here.

At the moment, I appeared in a barracks like room with a bunch of beds along the side of the room. Everyone was wearing some sort of armor and had their weapons holstered.

“How’d I even get here?” I asked the small group of people.

“After the general knocked ya out, he told us that you’d be part of our training group. So, we dragged you back here to get some rest and heal up from the beating and I must say, after only 3 hours of rest, you’ve healed up pretty well.” One of the dwarfs said.

I looked over at my stats really quickly and thought that I was about halfway to being fully healed up. My mana was full as I didn’t use any of it during the “training” with the General and had an amazing mana regeneration. Speaking of regeneration, my {Intermediate Regeneration} leveled up!

Getting out of the stone bed, I did a quick stretch before feeling a bit hungry, probably because of regeneration consuming a bunch of calories even though I just had a bunch of food prior to training with the General.

“Can we get something to eat really quick? Maybe a drink too, I’m actually quite thirsty as well…” I said before mumbling only to myself. “Might be cause of all the blood I had leaking out of my nose…”

The dwarfs turned to each other before giving a hearty laugh.

“You speak like a true dwarf there lad! Just woke up and want some food and a nice drink! How about you go clean yourself up in there bathroom and then we’ll make our way to the mess-hall?” He said while pointing at a door.

I gave him a thumbs up before heading to the bathroom. All there was inside the bathroom was a simple hole in the ground. I looked at it in disgust before making a mental note to find out if there was a proper bathroom somewhere here.

With the thing I wanted in the bathroom not being here (An actual toilet and mirror), I decided to rely on the next best things. Magic and the system.

‘System, please give me a mirror I can use please. Spend at most like 5 or 10 system points if you have to.’

[Confirmed. Deducting 4 System Points. Handheld Mirror now in Inventory.]
for visiting.

I thanked it before quickly taking out the mirror and checking out my face. All over my mouth and a bit on my neck was all the blood that ran down my nose. The General hit hard and this just proved it.

Using magic, I cleaned myself up the best I could before regretfully having to go to the bathroom in the hole. I immediately used magic to clean up the place and then left the bathroom.

The guys immediately took me to the mess hall and brought over a couple of drinks and a bit of food for me to eat. Mostly drinks though.

I stared at my drink for a bit and sniffed it. From what I could tell, it was made of something foul and rotten as the drink smelled horrible. Though looking at the dwarves who were currently chugging it like they haven’t had a drop of water their entire lives, it was the best thing in existence.

My instincts told me that drinking this was a horrible idea. My mind on the other hand said that it probably wouldn’t be as bad as I expected.

The mental dilemma came to mind again. Which do you rely on? The dwarfs were drinking it and didn’t seem to have a problem with it. But I also wasn’t a dwarf.

I pushed it to the side, relying on my instincts this time and asking for something less Dwarvish to drink. They looked at each other before sighing in disappointment but hey, I didn’t want to risk it.

I at the food they gave me while once again contemplating. I just couldn’t get it out of my head for some reason.

After a while I had a mug of water given to me by the group which I kindly thanked them for before spending a few more minutes finishing up my food and drinks.

By this time, we had about a half hour left till training according to the group and it takes about 15 minutes to walk to the intended location. So, for 15 minutes we just talked. We had a good time and got to know each other.

The first person I talked to who asked me what I was doing when I woke up was Grel. He relied more on being light on his foot compared to the regular dwarf as he was a scout that tried to get things done quickly as he said. Though it was mostly to run away according to the group.

One of the other dwarfs was Gunther, a wizard or sorcerer wannabe who decided to incorporate magic into his fighting style. He called himself an Eldritch knight or something. The group shook their heads in disappointment upon hearing what he called himself.

Next was Flint who was a bard or so his friends said. He was around only for a few seconds before he walked away from the group to a girl and said something that caused her to slap him. His only reaction upon getting slapped was laughing and saying something back to the girl before finger gunning and then leaving.

Finally, was Vondal, a Paladin of an actual god unlike what Humans usually do. He worshiped Moradin who was pretty much everything a dwarf would want. Moradin did blacksmithing, protected families, helped the earth become more stone like, etc etc. However, he was also “addicted” to Moradin as he based his entire life to pleasing, meeting, and then one day dying for him.

Hearing all this, I automatically knew the problem with my group. It was the weird one. The group that everyone picked on because of the way they were or just because of how they did things.

By the time I was introduced to everyone, we only had the 15 minutes left to get to training with the General, so we started making our way there. We got in line with me at the end and just waited there patiently for the General to show up.

He eventually came about 5 minutes later while barking out orders to the closest groups about what to do and what to focus on for todays training. When he eventually got to our group, he gave me a big smile.

“Well well well, looks like someone’s back for another training session.” He said.

I looked at him with a bit of hate.

“Did you really give me this type of group?” I asked questioningly

“Yes.” He replied simply.