Magic Apprentice

Chapter 4: Application (6/6)

While on break, Elric did his best to craft a bow of his own. Using one of the leftover pikes, he set about the preparations. Made from redbud, the wood from the pike had to be soaked and treated with a hardening process. Such a process would inhibit the natural flexibility of the wood, but it mattered little when he could rely on the length of the wood to craft a heavy bow. Since the arrows given by Charle were meant for a longbow, Elric had to craft several dozen new arrows for his new bow.

And since he had his own bow and arrow, Elric didnt have to practice with the others. He was free to find his own shooting range on his own time to practice.

As a result, Elric found his accuracy and consistency improving rapidly.

One of the drills Charle ran was to have every mercenary separated into ten groups. Each group would have ten bows and three hundred arrows for them to shoot. Each mercenary would continue shooting until they ran out of arrows before Charle would note down their accuracy and have the others pick up the arrows. Then theyd reset.

Sometimes, Elric would borrow another bow to practice with when the other mercenaries were on break. Different bows meant different methods of shooting them. The longbow, for example, had a very stable draw to it compared to the warbow. But in exchange for this stability, the longbow sacrificed the rate of fire. Warbows were generally far easier to aim with than the longbow and were easier to use. 

That being said, longbows were far better than warbows in terms of range and accuracy at longer distances.

Elrics fascination with archery was generally met with skepticism from the other mercenaries. It seemed like a strange choice for a magus like Elric to want to learn archery. Bows had a range of a hundred to two hundred meters, but spells could easily go beyond five hundred meters and had a far greater radius of effect than arrows. 

Defense was a nightmare for most archers. Heavy-armor foot soldiers had swords that could easily penetrate the armor of archers. Archers could hardly do much in return. Offensively, their arrows generally werent capable of penetrating shields or armor, especially the armor belonging to knights. Itd be a one-sided massacre if the knights were able to reach the archers.

The Sovereign Kingdom had a certain amount of archers on hand, but they were never the main attack force. They were always used to supplement the attacks of the knights and the foot soldiers whenever the two changed formations. Their effectiveness was very minimal and often led to the complaints of many commanders. If not for the hero who was said to have used a bow in the Day of Triumph, the Sovereign Kingdom wouldve removed archers from their ranks a long time ago.

Whoever that hero was, Elric didnt know. There was no way Sovereign was going to spread the fame one that hero, given that he was one of the Three Heroes of the Karch. But he did know the names of the two heroes from his own kingdom. There was the Templar Bolst and the Archmagister Mekaton, heroes that would later inspire Sovereign onto the development of knights and magic. 

There was only half a month left for Elrics mission to start when his training ended.

It ended with Charle wanting to test everyones capability. Running and tree-climbing were among one of the skills Elric excelled at, amazing the other mercenaries and even Charle. Stereotypically, magi were not thought to be very physically able. Because of his background as a magus, Elric was able to exceed Charle in aspects such as disguise and trapmaking. It wasnt an easy journey for trapmaking, however. Elric had really struggled to grasp the basics before he was able to weave magic into it.

One of the things Charle was evaluating in this portion was how well-disguised the traps were. If Charle could detect the trap, then they failed. If he couldnt, then they passed. The majority of mercenaries werent very proficient in this regard and their traps were easily noticed at a glance. Those traps were the ones Charle made sure to criticize the most. There were several traps that had multiple layers to them and made especially hard to detect. Rather than point them out, Charle pretended not to see them and move past. In the end, Elric had the best traps. Not only were his trap placements perfect, but they had magic weaved into them so that they were practically perfect in disguise. Even Charle was a victim. When he stepped onto one of the traps, he found himself suddenly hoisted into the air by his leg and left to struggle upside down. 

Because of this, Elric was under Charles attentive eyes for the next few days.

The last half-month of training was the most peaceful one. The majority of the mercenaries were now fully aware of what being a mercenary was all about and could function as one without much issue. That was when Charle officially declared the ending of their training. 

Many mercenaries took this time to crowd around Charle. It was time they ask the question that had been stuck with them since the very beginning. Charle said that the pike had a distinctive difference to it than the other weapons, what was it?

Did ye never think how the pike is the most convenient weapon? The cheapest one?

No one was happy to hear such an answer.

Elric still had three days to go. The majority of this time was spent with Charle to learn more specialized information, one that was very important for Elric: court etiquette. 

Every single mercenary there was surprised to hear Charle was actually a member of nobility. A member of one of the oldest noble families within the kingdom. In fact, only Elric was willing to believe Charles claim. If someone like Crazy could be a noble, then Charle being one wasnt all too big a stretch. Actually, Elric learned from Charle that the two were even related. Crazys mother, the last queen, was Charles aunt. 

Elric felt it rather Elricy to be intertwined with yet another person from that lineage, given how Charle was specifically entrusted by the Court to instill proper etiquette into Elric. After learning that fact, Elric often thought how problematic the previous queen was if her descendants and relatives were still this distinct in personality.

Many of the mercenaries heckled Elric during this part. Feeling brave in their patriotic feelings for their kingdom, these mercenaries felt it appropriate to impose their own opinions on the one said to be one of the Six Disgraces of the Circle of Magi. Elric, of course, said little in an attempt to quiet these mercenaries. Through the lessons he was being taught by Charle, he learned just why Crazy and Charle were so readily willing to throw away their titles. One became a crazy mage and the other an unconventional mercenary. Lineage wasnt the only important factor in the muddy waters that was politics. Etiquette was just as important and was torturous to learn by itself.

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