Archery Week 1 Part 2

John cast Observe on the first weapon rack.

T1M-E Level 1 Shortbow
5 dmg per hit, draw time 5 seconds, range 30-60 feet. Made from Tier 1 Mana Enriched Wood.

T1M-E Level 1 Longbow
20 dmg per hit, draw time 15 seconds, range 50-100 feet. Made from Tier 1 Mana Enriched Wood.

T1M-E Level 5 Shortbow
9 dmg per hit, draw time 5 seconds, range 30-60 feet. Made from Tier 1 Mana Enriched Wood.

T1M-E Level 5 Longbow
40 dmg per hit, draw time 15 seconds, range 50-100 feet. Made from Tier 1 Mana Enriched Wood.

He cast Observe on the second weapon rack, double checking the pattern he was seeing.

T2M-E Level 1 Shortbow
105 dmg per hit, draw time 4 seconds, range 20-70 feet. Made from Tier 2 Mana Enriched Wood.

T2M-E Level 1 Longbow
520 dmg per hit, draw time 30 seconds, range 50-150 feet. Made from Tier 2 Mana Enriched Wood.

T2M-E Level 5 Shortbow
109 dmg per hit, draw time 4 seconds, range 20-70 feet. Made from Tier 2 Mana Enriched Wood.

T2M-E Level 5 Longbow
540 dmg per hit, draw time 30 seconds, range 50-150 feet. Made from Tier 2 Mana Enriched Wood.

John raised his eyebrows and whistled in appreciation, which he immediately regretted.
I’m supposed to be on guard against showing my power, I can’t believe I so clearly let her know I can tell the second rack is so much more powerful than the first rack just by looking at it. God damn it.

“See something you like?” Diana asked with amusement in her voice.

“Yeah, these bows are really… pretty…” John tried his best to deflect his interest in their power on his interest in their intricate design. They truly were beautiful works of art, with designs of vines and leaves carved into their pure white wood.

“You think so? I’m flattered. I carved each of these myself.” There was clear pride in that statement, justifiably so. There were dozens of rows of weapons racks.

If I’ve got the pattern right, shortbows have a base damage of 5 at level 1, and their damage increases by 1 point per level. After reaching level 100, they rise in Tier and their draw time decreases by 1 second, while their range increases by 20 feet split between the lower threshold and the higher threshold. Longbows have a base damage of 20 at level 1, and their damage increases by 5 points per level. After reaching level 100, they rise in Tier and their draw time doubles, while their range increases by 50 feet in the higher threshold.

John reached for a Tier 1 Level 1 shortbow, feeling the weight in his hands. The wood vibrated with magic energy as he held it, and the vine carvings started to glow faintly orange.

I’m not sure how a bow can have a lower range threshold; it’s not like if an enemy was a foot closer than the range outlined in their description the arrow would suddenly not hit them.

John shrugged mentally and reached for the string. He pulled it back with ease, but decided to feign a struggle to maintain his safe air of incompetence. To his surprise, when he pulled the string all the way back, a flaming mana arrow manifested, nocked and ready to be loosed, accompanied by a system Ding!.

“Uh, help?” John didn’t need to fake a tone of urgency.

“Oh wow! You’re really gifted in flame affinity, huh? What’s up, if you want to test your aim, the firing range is that way.” Diana pointed at the very clear and super obvious firing range that took up the entire wall opposite the weapon racks with an amused expression.

“How do I put it away?”

“What do you mean? Just stop channeling mana into the bow.” She sounded on the verge of more laughter at his expense.

“I’m not channeling mana into it? At least not consciously?” John took a peek at the system notification while Diana walked over to him.

New skill: Mana Arrow level 1

Mana Arrow level 1: Your mana becomes an arrow, ready to loose your precise wrath on your enemies.

Damage: (base bow damage) x (skill level/10 [rounded down to nearest whole number, minimum of 1]) + (mana invested in spell) x (skill level/5 [rounded down to nearest whole number, minimum of 1])

Cost: variable, minimum 1

A peek was just enough to know that this skill was a little more complicated than his other skills so far. Diana reached him and looked him up and down curiously.

“You’re… not quite channeling? Like the bow is ready to receive your mana, and your mana is taking the shape of an arrow, but you haven’t actually released any. Just let go of the string.”

John let go, and a faint trail of spectral flames floated sluggishly in the trajectory the arrow would have taken accompanied by another system Ding!. Diana looked at him with more interest than John was comfortable with.

“So, uh, a little guidance would be nice.” John smiled awkwardly.

Elizabeth “Liz” Hollmey. She lived alone with her mother, Nariko, on Takaboko-jima Island in the Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. Lived alone with, not together with, considering how much time Nariko spent away from home on business. It was always something or other; sealing a deal with one of the Divided Gates, overlooking the construction of a distribution center, negotiating with a god of commerce, winning over the favor of a mercenary guild, it was all more important than staying at home and raising her daughter. Liz was old enough to know it was all necessary, her mother had only recently found the success that allowed them to live in luxury after all, it just hurt a little bit to think about some days.

First world problems, huh? Here I am, living in an ultra modern magic house on a private island in an isolated magic bubble with everything I could ever want at my fingertips and still complaining because I miss spending time with my mom.

She sighed and walked away from the glass barrier she had been leaning against. A sleek modern-style balcony wrapped around one corner of their house. Laughter erupted from the living room behind her, and she turned to smile at whatever joke had just been made. A few of her cousins had come by to celebrate her “graduation.” They sat in the minimalist conversation pit, a splash of neon hair and wildly differing clothing tastes. The music playing through the speakers was just as rich and varied, going from a punk rock track to a reggae track to an EDM track without remorse.

Liz had completed her private tutelage in Martial Arts, all that was left for her to learn was the Grandmaster Techniques. That would be a very personal and meditative journey for future Liz, though. For now, she was more than happy to spend the night partying with her cousins, and then continue to seclude herself in her independent study of music and magic.

Life is good.

“John Newman.” Diana’s voice began to layer itself over and over, giving her words the power of a choir. “What are you, exactly?”

Her eyes began to glow a bright white, and a blast of power spiralled off her as she stood next to John. He stumbled backwards in a panic, but was too slow.

“Show me.” Diana was suddenly behind him, and she took hold of his head with both hands.

Her fingers held his temples in a soft but firm grasp, immobilizing him. A pure white aura flared over his, smothering it with its immense weight and power. He screamed, but no sound escaped his lips. His eyes also began to glow white, and he was no longer in the Warehouse.

John and Diana stood side by side in an infinite black expanse, surrounded by windows upon windows of code. John recognized snippets of C++ and Python, but there was much, much more he didn’t recognize. There were symbols he didn’t recognize, in writing systems that made no sense to him. Several windows were hexagonal or other unorthodox shapes, with code filling the screen from the outer edges towards the center. His head started to hurt as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing, a sharp pain behind his eyes that pulsed along with his heartbeat.

A figure moved among the windows of code. They themselves seemed to be made of code, the classic green rain rolling down in the shape of a feminine humanoid with wings. They floated circles around John and Diana, the pain behind John’s eyes spiked whenever he looked at the figure.

Whatever this is, I’m definitely not allowed to see it.

The infinite black expanse began to brighten, a green glow lighting up the space from somewhere below John and Diana. Small fans began whirring, accompanied by intermittent buzzing noises. John felt nostalgic, though he had no idea why. More and more little fans added their blades to the choir as the iconic clacking of a Model M keyboard joined the mix. A few seconds later and the Windows 95 startup sound played, followed by the tell-tale screech of dial-up internet, wailing in the distance. The fans and the buzzing sounds faded away under its oppressive noise. After the dial-up and the echoes of its fuzzy radio frequency died, the Windows 98 startup sound played, followed by the Windows ME startup sound and the Windows XP startup sound.

The space was silent for a minute, and John dreaded where this was heading. The Windows Vista startup sound played, and all the coding efforts in the windows surrounding John and Diana stopped in their tracks for a few seconds, as if they too were cringing at the memory. The Windows 7 startup sound played and the coding windows resumed their work. The Windows 8 startup sound played immediately after, and was followed by the Windows 10 startup sound. Confused but satisfied by the progression of Windows startup sounds, John continued to look around to try and figure out what was going on.

The Windows XP error sound played. John felt like he had been hit in the gut with a battering ram. The green glow that had been lighting up the area turned red. It played again as he doubled over in pain from the first time. He retched, but all that came out was a splatter of orange ones and zeros. It played again and he fell to his knees, his vision blurry and filling with more orange ones and zeros. It played again and he felt as if his entire existence was glitching; he tried to move but his body refused to agree on where it was. He thought his left arm was pinned under his torso, but his left arm thought it was splayed out at a painful angle, while his right arm thought they were both pressed against his head; he tried to move his left hand and all three instances moved at the same time.

“So this is what you are.” Diana’s voices overpowered the error noises torturing John.