The Arcane Archer - Chapter 34 Incapable

Reaching out and grabbing the hammer, the Smith as I’m calling him, gave a big grin before letting go of the hammer. Expecting the hammer not to weigh much, I didn’t use any strength to hold it in place. Contrary to my belief the hammer actually weighed a ton.

The hammer went head first directly into the stone ground and left the handle hanging upwards with my hand still on it. I tried lifting it up but no matter how much strength I put into it, I was unable to lift it even a singular millimeter.

The Smith ‘gently’ slapped me on the back with so much force that I was forced to move a foot or so just to carry out the momentum he gave me.

“Come on, put your back into it!” He said.

I glared at him but he didn’t seem to care.

Moving back in place, I got ready once again to move the hammer but this time with both hands and with my legs. After a solid minute of doing this and sweating like crazy, eventually something in my right arm popped.

*You’ve injured your shoulder! You’ve taken

Falling onto the ground, I put my hand around my right shoulder and held onto it hoping that it would help with the pain.

“You hurt yourself while trying to lift a simple hammer?” He asked while shaking his head. “Guess you’re not cut out for this line of work.”

“That is anything but a simple hammer. Whatever you metal or magic that is made out of is something way to heavy! There’s even a crater there after dropping it a few feet.” I nodded over to the hammer and crater in front of me.

He shook his head.

“That’s nothing but a little dent in the floor. I’ll fix it in a couple of minutes.” He quickly scanned the room for something before moving over to one side and grabbing it.

Coming back, he placed down a chair in front of me.

“Here, sit and watch. Though you may not be able to lift even the most basic of tools, you can at least watch.”

Without even giving me a chance to refuse, he already left to start doing some work. I sighed before taking a seat and watching the Smith do work for a couple of minutes before eventually getting tired of the constant metal banging noise.

I opened one of the random books that I had in my inventory and started reading it.

“Once upon a time *bang* there was a simple human who *bang* tried to *bang* defy *bang* *bang* the odds that fate gave them. Attempting to forge their own fate *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang*, they took to faking being something they were not. This is the tale of *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang**bang* *bang* *bang **bang* *bang* *bang* the Peasants Knight. *bang*”

Looking up from my book, I stared at the Smith in hopes that he would see it and stop. Sadly, he did not so I go up from my chair and left.

Out in the nice cool and quiet hallway, I stretched before heading to the cafeteria to get something to eat and drink while also making sure to avoid alcohol because the dwarves keep forgetting that I cannot drink like one of them. Since it was so quiet as well, I pulled out the book once again and started reading it. Not out loud this time though.

Finally arriving at the mess hall, I discovered that nobody was there and just assumed that it was time for training or something. They love their training a lot so it makes sense. After getting my quick drink and food like I wanted, I spend a nice half hour just reading the simple book, not getting any skills or stat points, just spending my time doing what I wanted.

Though I did start getting inpatient for someone to appear.

Closing the book after marking my spot, I threw it in my inventory before leaving the mess hall to look around to find something or someone to talk to. Walking around for a bit, I opened a couple of doors and continued to discover no dwarves or anything.

Suddenly, I heard a loud noise that I couldn’t identify happen a bit down the hallway and around a corner. Making a bow of mana using 5 mana per second, I created an arrow using 100 mana. The way the arrows do damage I figured out was that it did the same amount of damage equal to the mana used to make the arrow, plus 10 percent of both my intelligence AND dexterity. That means my arrow currently will deal 117 damage.

Holding my bow ready, I pulled the mana string back ready to release the arrow as I slowly made my way up to the turn.
for visiting.

“Hello?” I called out while still slowly moving forwards.

Just then, a simple metal cup rolled across the floor and landed in front of me. Staring at it for a bit, I eventually dismissed my bow and arrow and picked it up.

Looking at it I noticed nothing special about it and inspecting just said it was a simple metal cup without a handle. Shrugging, I put a mana mark for the heck of it before throwing it at the wall so that it bounced around the corner.

No noise was heard.

I stepped around the corner to find a couple of dwarven guards floating in the air with blood leaking out of them. I went to go make a bow but a sword came up to my neck.

“Well it seems like everything we were told about you has been… Exaggerated to say the least.” A gruff voice behind me said. “Put your hands up and I’ll rescue you nice and quick from the delusion that has been forced upon you.”

“And why should I do that?” I asked while slowly doing as commanded.

“You wouldn’t like a painful death, would you?”

I continued to slowly raise my hands before quickly throwing them into the air and using a combination of thoughts and feelings to use wordless magic. A giant stream of air somehow shot us both into the air as I quickly used this chance to activate my superspeed and gain some distance.

Turning around, I made another bow and made an arrow using another 100 mana. I went to go fire it but whoever was behind me was no longer there and my arrow just destroyed a small part of the wall.

“Nice trick. Though you’re still a bit slow.”

Quickly combat rolling to the left, I pulled three throwing knives out of my inventory and threw them in the general direction of the voice. Three audible *tink* noises were heard.

Now getting a good look, I saw that the person was wearing a white fancy looking outfit with metal armor here and there. He also had unkempt beard and long sword in his left hand. On his right was a metal gauntlet that had all 3 of the knives I threw.

Walking towards me in what seemed to be a normal pace but actually only seemed normal because of superspeed, the human continued as if there were no problems at all.

Out of nowhere, he threw the 3 knives back at me. One knife scratched the side of my face while a second one scratched my left shoulder.

*You’ve taken 263 Slashing Damage!

I fired two more arrows which left me at 570MP before I threw a ball of fire at him using some more mana.

Dismissing the bow, I attempted to run and find a better vantage point or give myself a bit of range to face him. Somehow though, he seemed to always stay the exact same distance away.

Turning around and firing another arrow a bit off course from him, I dismissed my bow and watched as it nearly flew over his head before using the curving arrow skill and trying to make it hit him in the back. Without even looking, he maneuvered his sword around so that it is that flat part of the blade instead of where I tried curving the arrow.

“What a fancy trick. Why don’t you see the error of your ways and join which you rightfully should? You know that the Human race is above all others. Aetius, the one true god, wants you to come back to your real family Leo.” He said while slowly walking again.

“I have no clue who the ever-living FUCK you are, and you are definitely not my family.”

Throwing a quick inspection his way, I tried gaining a semblance of an idea of how to escape, hide, beat him, or something. Luckily it also appeared that Luck was on my side for once.

[Inspect has leveled up to level 6! More information is now revealed!]

[Name- Marth ?????

Race- Human

Class- ??????

Title- The Potential Deprived

Level- ????

HP- ?????

MP- ?????

Strength- ?????

Dexterity- ?????

Constitution- ?????

Intelligence- ?????

Wisdom- ?????

Charisma- ?????

Skills- ?????]

Everything else however, seemed to be on my enemies’ side.

[Lucky Break activated! Luck has doubled for the next minute!]

Sadly, I still think it’s still on their side…