Ray and Levik met up below the town walls the next day. Ray's left arm still throbbing with a dull pain as they scaled the ladder to the southern side.
"Ray! over here" A melodic feminine voice resounded from the wall. The duo looked over to see Elana waving her fair, delicate hand at him. her Reinforced metal gauntlet held with her other.
Ray ran over to meet up with Elana as she reached out to hug him. Although there was no warmth in the hug due to 2 layers of solid metal separating them Ray still felt blessed by her affection. "Are you okay," she scanned him head to toe for injury. "W-when i saw you last.."
*cough-* One of Elana's fellow knights coughed gently from the side, making Elana blush slightly.
"Ray its good to see your okay." Ray barely recognised the woman besides Elana. Though he remembered her face.
It was at this point that Levik caught up with them, looking at Ray's interaction with a weird glint in his eye. 'so even you have this side?' He thought to himself.
Ray was decently well known within the current recruits as a quiet young cadet that for some reason has a private instructor. The others knew he was talented or skilled but how was beyond them.
Regardless the common consensus was that he was a outlier and social outcast by choice. so seeing him so friendly with someone was a surprise.
A cadet in light-leather armor ran up to Elana. the commanding officer of this section and whispered in her ear before running back to the northern side of the wall.
Elana coughed to get everyone's attention. "Me, Ray... Levik?, Ana. Ashley, Fredrick and Joshua will move out as a squad to hold the southern wall for today, the rest of you will be diverted to the northern boarder."
As one of the best Archer's in Silverbranch Elana was akin to a 4 man squadron. by herself she could man a Greatbow with proficiency alike two soldiers and she wielded a short-bow secondary weapon with just as much prowess.
This was mainly due to her upbringing as a member of the Eartine family, as one of Alex Eartine's two daughters she was given the best gear and equipment Alex could afford... 'one of the benefits of wealth i guess' Ray would think whenever that gorgeous short-bow would make its appearance.
although Ray didn't know it, Elana's armor was dozen's of times more expensive than the Shortbow, Reinforced with the same inverted lattice bone's that make the shortbow covered the nearly the entire inner structure of her suit.
The entire armor was tougher than the bones of a Zerran or roughly equal to the scales of the Grand dune-fish. Her entire set had a value equivalent to that of a Royal suit of armor.
Yet... that didn't make her that strong, powerful impacts would render the armor nearly useless, her suit didn't protect against heat or cold and the sheer intricacy of the armor meant that if one shard of lattice broke or snapped, the entire piece would need rebuilding.
In the eyes of the powerful Alex Eartine its. "merely a colourful decoration meant to make a monster target someone else." And indeed it worked as all the Squallors from the prior attack virtually ignored Elana in favor of Ray.
As such when Elana looked at her protégé, her student. She felt faintly guilty as although she didn't run away from the attack, the Squallors were entirely focused on Ray.
'This time i will protect you to the best of my ability' the woman thought while taking him away from the ongoing conflict in the north under the 'pretext' that they couldn't leave the southern boarder unguarded.
Although this wasn't considered to be a dereliction of duty, this action which was akin to favouritism definitely wouldn't be looked upon fondly by the Silverskin family higherups. The ones in charge of the cities defence.
...
And so under the subtle protection of his mentor. Rays next few months of duty remained uneventful.
The watchmen in charge of northern boarder got replaced as they began a great project of cutting back the northern borders tree-line, Preventing the same tactic from working twice.
Ray got back into his routine of training and planning his next skill. 'my Constitution is now at 13. im nearing the human limit once i finish military training it will be 14, and then i could master heavy armor training to push it all the way up to 16?
Or i could shore up on my weaknesses and focus on Greatbow training. bringing my Agility and Strength up to 11...'
He was stuck at a impasse as he knew breaking the human limit might bring him benefits yet getting heavy armor training would be a chore as its only part of the mandatory knight training once you have military merits.
"Yet even if i get 16 Con, it means nothing if i can't kill enemies. i need strength." Ray knew the system wasn't broken even if he cursed it in his mind during every kill where he got no experience.
'Either stronger monsters are needed.. or humans?' either side scared him. if its stronger monsters then how strong? 20 average stats? 30? maybe even 50? might be mandatory. Yet if he has to hunt humans, that might be worse.
"No allies, no friends. I'd be hunted down with no home of my own. enemies on both sides.." He shuddered, "but even still, if its necessary i will do it." Ray steeled himself once more.
"But i need a plan. I will first learn greatbow training and then..."
... The next morning Ray arrived at the Archery range, took hold of a longbow and tried his hand at a few shots. his form was poor and he couldn't even hit the target 10 meters away from him.
"that's not right.. that's not right at all, what are you doing here kid? trying to harm yourself?" an elderly man with a cane walked up to Ray from behind.
"This old git seem's to be 80, what's he doing here complaining?" Ray was frustrated. and he took it out mentally on the random interloper.
"What are you frowning at child, Are you not trying to harm yourself? what's with your posture? your form? have you ever shot a bow before?" The old man started berating Ray, pointing his cane at different parts of Ray's body.
"your legs are to close together, you need a proper stance to shoot right, why are your arms so stiff... grip the arrow with a pinch not your fist.. not like that you git.. time your breathing with your movements." gradually the old man moved from insulting the boys every action, to helping him correct his posture.
'This guy. Observe' ray was stunned by the mans knowledge and couldn't help but get curious.
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Name: Rexar (Silverskin?)
Strength: 12
Constitution: 18
Agility: ??
Mind: 18
Skills:
Morph: you Learned the art of changing your form +2 mind
Shadow Elf's grace: your naturally talented at the arts of dagger and archery +3 Agi +3 mind +50% learning rate of archery/dagger skills
Intermediate Archery: you trained in the art of archery and reached a intermediate level of proficiency, you can wield any bow like its your own arm +5 Agi
Basic Archery: you trained in the art of archery and reached a basic level of proficiency, most bows feel like an extension of your own strength +2 Agi
Greatbow Training: +1 Str +1 Agi
Basic dagger mastery: ... +2 Agi
Intermediate dagger mastery: ... +5 Agi
...
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