Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

Chapter 7: another perspective

During lunch time Yunan met Leol and whined about how instructor Bai was sabotaging his plans just because he felt like it, on the other hand Leol bragged about how mundane was his magic application class, and how the teacher let them play around with ideas of how to use magic in everyday life to promote the livelihood of commoners, the two shared their meal in high spirits, although it seemed that both were just talking nonsense to others, Yunan was teaching what he learned about planning to Leol, while Leol was telling Yunan how to evaluate what is worth creating magical items for and what the commoners science could cover for.

After the meal, Leol went back to the room with the notebooks Yunan had filled with plans and instructor Bai torn appart. he thought reading them would help with whatever instructor Bai would throw at them later on. as for Yunan he went to the archery field, where he found instructor Bai already napping under the shade of the giant parasol, where students stand and shoot at the far away targets. once he arrived he poked bai awake and asked "how are we going to do this?" instructor Bai glared at him and opened the basket beside his recliner chair and took out the training bow, a pair of leather gloves, two arm braces that covered from wrist to elbow and passed them to Yunan.

Instructor Bai then showed him the way to hold the bow, nock, draw and loose the arrow, Bai also corrected Yunans stance and when all was said and done he told Yunan to shoot at the targets, 100 arrows, then switch hands and keep shooting, then take a rest after the shooting 200 arrows to avoid injury and to not wake him up unless he hits the target 20 times, he was also expected to shoot between 300 and 400 arrows before the class is over with minimal aiming time. by the time yunan shot the 5th arrow, snores drifted over from Bai.

When the bell rang announcing the end of the afternoon class, Yunan had just finished his 300th arrow, there were about 10 arrows on the target in different locations and a forest of arrows clustered all around it. it must be mentioned the target was the first one at 100 meters away the average length a training arrow could shoot accurately. bai gave a nod and took his leave after patting Yunan on the head. Yunan then returned to the room, and took a nap before heading to the diner for dinner, it seemed the evening training he planned was becoming unnecessary, since Bai is keeping him well worked out and tired, thus he will stick to resting and reading until he had enough physical ability to train after the classes are over, for now, the morning jog and stretches will be enough to allow his body to grow stronger. after dinner the boys had a small chat before tucking in for the night.

that night was well lit night, the hunting troop was reduced to pairs for scouting around the cleaned up area to prevent more monsters from occupying the newly emptied land, while some were to locate the nests in the surrounding area and mark them for clean up. one of those pairs were sitting around a fire roasting a half limbed skinned boar, the pair, a man and a woman were discussing with low voices while slicing of meat from the roast now and then, the woman was older, she looked gentle and fair, she was wearing magician robes and had a crossbow by her side, the man had bow on his back and a sword planted beside him, he wore warrior leathers, there was a quiver standing behind him.

The man seemed to be complaining to the woman while she just smiled at him. " i am at wits end Leader, although the boy is good and have a good head on his shoulder, he knows almost nothing, he does not respect me and calls me a lazy bum or lazy maniac, he brings his friend over to pester me, and it only had been three days since we started working together, and worst of all he does not let me sleep" his words trailed off as he saw the chuckling lady he called Leader, he could not keep it up and just lowered his head and stared at his feet. Leader's answer was a bit out of his expectations, she said with an experienced air to her words "Bai my dear, how do you expect a backwater city runt to be of any use, the fact that he could keep up as long as he does means he did have enough training to back up his will to learn all, do you think he can match those from the capital and heirs to great families and rich merchants? At best he was playing around the church yard while the knights were training there, as for the respect thing, well have you ever seen a ten year old who would respect anyone?" Bai had a bitter look on his face as he chewed on a strip of roast.

"it's not that i had any high expectations, Leader" answered Bai "it's just that i never thought i would be assigned someone who wanted to learn it all, i know that i am a jack of all trades, but he wants to be a master of all trades. At least that is the vibe i get from him, he just keep doing whatever i tell him to, no matter how silly it is. Today we bickered about how prepared he could be for a camping trip, not argued, but bickered, he kept correcting plan after plan until i could only use risks that not even god can predict. i am his teacher, i am not supposed to lose to him, but the runt never gives up". Leader just smiled at him and said with a playful tone "why not give him to me when this clean up quest is over, i bet it would be so much fun than playing around with you" Bai almost choked on his meat. "No way, leader, i won't give you my first student, if i give him up i fail and i have to teach in another academy and start all over, i might even be in charge for more than one runt. I will never promote in the guild if i don't finish this, and just one student is enough for my first time." after a moment of silence he got an idea " hey why not come by when this quest is over and help me teach the kid? i bet we could get him up to standard two years earlier, that way you can keep him to play with till he is 15 and can get inside the dungeon"

Leader seemed to be considering something then said with her playful tone " two years in the Academy, one year of traveling around, no matter when he graduates i keep him until he enters the dungeon, deal?" as Bai was about to answer, a howl spread through the night, it sent the whole area into silence, even insects quieted down. Bai and Leader stood up leisurely, took their weapons and snuffed the fire and vanished into the dark, only one word was left hanging "deal"