Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Chapter 104 - Fletching Failure (3)

As Rino waited for Griffith's good news, he reasoned that nothing stopped him from working on those twenty quivers. 

The weaving wisps and skeleton ladies were startled when Rino visited the weaving workshop. There, a fairy in charge of maintaining the magic looms fluttered over hurriedly to greet Rino.

"What brings you here, my lord?"

Rino looked around. Everyone looked busy, and he felt slightly bad for piling on more work, but he absolutely refused to weave twenty quiver baskets on his own. His duty was to turn them in for the daily quest and manage an empire, not do menial tasks that others could do.

"I want a quick commission for twenty quiver baskets," he told the fairy who beamed as if she was bestowed an expensive gift. 

Now that Rino observed closely, the other weaving ladies gushed in excitement when Rino assigned them a new task. Was the job here too dull? He couldn't understand his servants sometimes. They were happy when he troubled them with jobs he didn't want to do and took pride in them as their top priority.

Even though he did not specify a timeline for the quiver baskets, the fairy in charge of weaving promised to deliver all twenty baskets by tomorrow. Rino was pleasantly surprised by their diligence and thanked the fairy, praising the ladies and told them to keep up the excellent work.

With this praise, the mood in the weaving room became cheerful, with ladies excitedly bustling around to gather weaving materials for the quiver baskets. Rino did not know how quivers were made in this world, but he left it to the village folk who knew what it looked like.

In his previous world, quivers were often crafted out of leather covering wood and worn over the back like a strap. Archers would search for arrows over their heads to reload their bows after firing. Horseback archery was a very common spot that made this style of carrying arrows popular. It started from nobles but made its way to the cavalry units that brought the kingdom many victories.

Rino wondered if they had horses in this world too. It would be cool to see some undead archers on mounts. He could only imagine how much fear this would instil in his enemies.

Returning to the forest with his different arrows and Fowler's crappy bow, Rino tried to fire the arrows with three feathers first.

The result wasn't good as the arrow spun crazily, but it did travel in a somewhat straight line before gravity brought it to the ground a few meters away from reaching the tree. Fowler's shortbow was somehow too powerful for the arrow to fly in a perfectly straight line even when Rino was able to nock it easily with the indent at the end of the arrow and a finger acting as an arrow rest.

Was it his bow drawing method that caused the arrow to go crazy? Rino could not understand until he picked up the arrow.

The feathers were now all frayed. Even with the linen string holding it in place, the feathers looked torn and could no longer be used.

Confused, Rino looked closely to analyse the reason for this horrible destruction. He wasn't an expert, but he could tell that these feathers had to be the reason why the arrow spun crazily when it was released. 

As Rino had no experience with archery, he could only do his best to replicate the incident again with the other arrow to check if three feathers weren't enough. Hsi time, he prepared to enter the shadow realm immediately after the arrow was released to slow time down and observe the arrow in greater detail.

His plan worked, and now, Rino saw the reason why the arrow spun crazily after it was released. The wind was pushing against the feathers that slowed its speed down while helping the arrow balance in the air. If the arrow did not have feathers, it would simply go in a different direction from what Rino wanted. That happened previously with Fowler, and Rino solved half the mystery now that he knew better.

The poor feathers could no longer be salvaged from the damage, but Rino knew what he should be doing. With the arrows containing four feathers, Rino checked the direction of these feathers. He wanted the feathers to be pointed in the direction of the arrow's trajectory, much like how wind gets cut by birds when they fly. Going against the wind would slow the arrow down, making the reach much shorter than what it could be.

At the same time, Rino fixed three new feathers to replace the damaged feathers on his two three-vaned arrows. He had an experiment to understand if he should be using three or four feathers in his arrows. The feathers helped an arrow travel smoother in theory if it could counter wind resistance.

For the moment of truth, Rino loaded his four-vaned arrow and pulled the bowstring taut, aiming at the tree using one finger as a guide and stilling himself.

Archery was a sport of the mind, or so he was told. Only a disciplined and calm mind would be able to hit the target. Rino couldn't remember which general told him that, but the magician remembered rolling his eyes and telling him that was what chantless spells were for.

Now, he wished he asked for more tips from that general when he could. It was a little too late for regrets, so Rino did his best to focus on the tree before him as he released the arrow before slipping into the shadow realm to witness the moment of truth.

The four-vaned arrow with corrected feather direction did not spin crazily. Instead, it travelled in such a smooth line after the initial shaking from getting fired. The power of that bowstring tension was no joke. Rino saw how the blunt arrowhead pierced the tough tree bark and embedded itself deeply.

For a moment, Rino did not know what to think about his first successful shot. He almost could not believe how easy this was. In his previous life, he could never fully draw a bow because magicians had weak bodies. They spent so much time polishing their minds that the most exercise they did was walking from the library to the study with an armful of books.

The lich never realised it before, but now, he could appreciate just how strong this new undead body was.

A wide invisible grin spread across his face, and Rino never felt more thrilled about his slightly superior physical build. Maybe he could finally try that very cool thing those guards often did on the ground called clap push ups.