Upon touching the bow, several motes of lights appeared around the room. Raising her eyebrows, Shiro glanced at her system interface since it had notified her of a new notification.
[Claiming Artemis’ Bow]
Shoot down every target that appears in the room. Each target will stay for 5 seconds.
Seeing this, Shiro realised that just getting the bow wasn’t enough. She had to prove that she could use the bow.
‘Well it ain’t too bad. I can handle a few targets.’ Shiro thought with a smile since she was rather talented with both the bow and the sniper. The only thing with the bow was that she needed to calculate the arrow fall speed as well if the target was far away.
Pulling back on the bow string, lights gathered towards her location and formed an arrow.
*Thuck!
Piercing the first target, Shiro pivoted on her foot and shot the second one without too much delay.
Memorising the arrival time of each target, she had made sure that she kept an internal timer on how long they’ve been around for. As each target only had 5 seconds to be shot down, she needed to be careful of her timing otherwise she’ll fail.
After all, she wasn’t in her superhuman state right now. She was a normal human or rather, spirit who knew how to control her body.
Shooting down target after target, sweat started to drip down Shiro’s body as it reminded her that she was currently nude. The cold wind blowing against her skin served as a distraction and she couldn’t help but feel grateful that no one was watching her right now. If a god happened to be watching and it was a male god, she’d make sure she erased their memories since she didn’t want her body to be seen by someone other than the one she wanted to make her partner.
*PING!!!
Shooting down the final target that had appeared, Shiro took a deep breath as it felt like her lungs were being set on fire right now.
While she was resting, a Sigil started to flicker on her wrist.
Looking down, she noticed that it was the Sigil which belonged to Artemis.
[Due to the presence of the dormant Sigil – Blessing of Artemis – The bow of Artemis has received a small upgrade.]
[This bow does not require arrows.]
[This bow will guarantee a hit as long as the arrow is within a certain distance from the target. If the user shoots the arrow behind them and expects it to hit the enemy, the arrow will not hit.]
[You have increased affinity with animals and spirits.]
[When you are in a forest, the power of your shots increase.]
[Your bow’s power is increased when you are under moonlight.]
[You can store this bow in your Sigil and it will appear by your command.]
[If you find the item – Orion’s Arrow – new features will be unlocked.]
Flicking her wrist, Shiro watched as the crystal bow disappeared into her Sigil.
Raising her eyebrow, she smiled and looked around her.
“Now then, how the hell am I meant to get out of this place.” She muttered. Investigating the cavern, Shiro noticed a Sigil on the wall. Putting her hands against the Sigil, the entire wall disappeared to reveal a set of stone stairs.
Walking up the stone stairs, she found herself in the same cavern where she had first noticed the boulders that had the mirror like surface underneath them.
“So it wasn’t a dead end but rather a hidden exit for when a person finishes the test huh?” Shiro said while glancing at the wall that reformed itself.
Shrugging her shoulders, she dashed out of the cave and made her way towards the lake. After all, her clothes were left at the lake side. If she were to lose her clothes, that would be truly awkward as she’ll need to go commando for a while.
Thankfully, her clothes were still there with no signs of being touched.
Quickly dressing herself, she made her way to the exit of this spot. Dashing through the trees, she was surprised to see the dryad waiting for her with a smile.
“Congratulations. You have indeed obtained the Bow of Artemis.”
“How did you know?” Shiro asked curiously.
“As the guide, it is only natural I know when someone has completed the test.” The dryad chuckled.
“Fair enough. I’ll be going back to the town now. Has anything happened in the time I was away?” Shiro asked.
“Not from what I can tell. Your friend did come to look for you but I told him that you were busy. He wanted to bring you some dinner and if you’re wondering, he is still waiting by the edge of the forest.” The dryad smiled.
“I see… Thank you for telling me about this bow by the way. It’ll be a great help to me.” Shiro grinned.
“It’s my pleasure.”
Dashing through the trees, Shiro arrived at the edge of the forest rather quickly.
Seeing Dimos sitting by one of the trees with a basket in hand, Shiro couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Sorry, I was getting something. Did you wait long?” Shiro asked as she landed next to him.
“Don’t worry. Are you hungry? I’ve brought some more food from the town.” Dimos replied while opening the basket.
“It’s not exactly the best food but it’ll do. Most of the people in the section of life don’t eat meat since it’s rather dangerous to hunt. So while we’re here, you might have to get used to no meat for a while unless some merchants from other sections happen to pass by one of the towns.” Dimos chuckled.
“That’s fine. Honestly, I’ve had worse I suppose.” Shiro shrugged and ate the bread.
“So what were you busy with?” Dimos asked curiously.
“With this.” Flicking her wrist, Shiro summoned the bow into her hand.
Seeing the bow, DImos widened his eyes.
Thanks to his divinity of wisdom, he immediately realised that this was the bow of Artemis.
“Wait, you obtained a weapon blessed by the gods?” Dimos asked with disbelief.
“Doesn’t that require some luck and knowledge on the god or goddess along with skills that match the weapon? Since Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, her test for the bow is probably something that even experienced hunters struggle with.”
“It was somewhat difficult.” Shiro admitted since she had almost failed half way through the test. There were simply too many targets and she barely managed to hit the last one in time. If she missed, she would have failed the test.
Hearing Shiro describe a god’s test as somewhat difficult, Dimos’ smile started to twitch.
“I thought you were proficient with daggers and short swords. When did you become proficient with the bow?” Dimos asked.
“I never said I was proficient with the daggers and short swords. You assumed that I was since there were the only weapons I could get my hands on at the time. I’m good with all forms of weaponry since I have some experience with them. Staffs, spears, halberds, long swords, short swords, daggers, bows and so on. And if it’s a custom weapon then give me a day or so. I’ll get used to it quickly.” Shiro smiled and dismissed the bow.
Hearing that Shiro was proficient with quite a few weapons, Dimos just accepted the fact that she could do it. His divinity of wisdom told him that any further thought on the matter would be harmful for his mental state.
After talking for a little while, Shiro brought up the subject of the dread sapling.
“So how far is it into stage two?” Shiro asked.
“Hmm… I’d say it’s roughly a third of the way in which is good for us since it means that there is a small chance of it reaching stage three.” Dimos replied.
“I see… have you called for reinforcements?”
“Yes I have. They’ll be arriving in roughly a week if they’re fast.” Dimos replied.
“Do you think it’ll reach stage 3 by that time?”
“Maybe. It’ll definitely reach the halfway point that’s for sure. As for whether or not it’ll reach stage three, we can only hope that it doesn’t.” Dimos shook his head.
“Hmm…”
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wasn’t exactly excited by the thought that they were going to leave it alone for another week. During this week, there was a chance that it could discover the liquified essence and should it reach that stage, it’ll most definitely reach stage three. Once that happens, the reinforcements that Dimos called for wouldn’t be enough.
“Dryad, is there a way for us to slow down its growth?” Shiro asked.
“Yes but it’s rather difficult. You’ll need to cut its roots so that it can’t expand outwards. That’ll force it to use some of the stored nutrients to heal itself. But that might agitate it and force combat.” The dryad replied.
“I see… Alright, we’ll keep that as a backup in case things get out of hand.” Shiro sighed.
