The Academy's Time Looper-Chapter 40: Crossed
Staring at the...recognizable weapon in front of him, Athen immediately brightened up, allowing a smile to creep onto his face.
Of course, Athen had no experience using typical weapons like swords, bows, axes, and spears, so he believed that his training would be a humiliation ritual.
However, as Athen stared at the weapon in front of him, he had to desperately resist the urge to hug Kai and pat him on the back.
Seeing Athen’s joyful expression, Kai also smiled before responding.
"From your...less than average build, I doubted you’d be able to handle any physically demanding weapon, like a broadsword, so I found this!"
As a tear of happiness slid down Athen’s cheek, Kai continued.
"But...this weapon has its limits. Once we start learning how to imbue objects with magic and cast spells in our first few weeks as actual students, you’ll have to switch to keep up with everyone else. Right now, though, it’ll work, even with no mana usage."
On Kai’s right palm lay a pitch-black crossbow with a trusty scope at the back, right above the trigger.
The crossbow, a combination of a traditional bow and a modern rifle, didn’t require much strength or precision, things Athen conveniently lacked.
[Image]
With the body of a long recursive bow at its front, the crossbow had two strings that tied the edges of each limb to the area below the scope, where the back of the arrow was located.
And, peeking out from the middle of the two limbs was the flight groove, a slim area where one could easily slide in an arrow.
The stretched strings and the flight groove, where the arrow was located, allowed the user to fire powerful and precise shots with just the click of a button, completely skipping the time-consuming process of drawing back a string and aiming.
However, this didn’t come without its drawbacks, as the crossbow had a significantly slower reload time, a lack of range, and a much heavier weight than a sleek bow.
And, as Kai said, the crossbow would be left behind and abandoned when magic came into play.
While Alice could increase the strength of her arrows by concentrating mana in her right arm as she pulled back the bowstring, the same could not be said for a crossbow.
No matter how hard you click the trigger of a crossbow, the strength and speed of the arrow will always be the same.
In other words, the skill ceiling for a crossbow is extremely low when compared to other substitutes.
As the black crossbow dazzled under the bright lights of the training halls, Athen reached forward and grabbed it, nodding in thanks to Kai.
After playing with the crossbow for a while, he finally found the right grip, placing his dominant hand on the stock, where the trigger was located, and his left hand below the flight groove, stabilizing the crossbow as he lifted it.
Raising the crossbow up to his face, Athen allowed his index finger to hover a few millimeters away from the trigger and peeked through the scope.
Aligning his scope with the head of a dummy, Athen instantly pressed down on the trigger, causing the tensed strings to immediately snap forward and send the arrow flying.
*THUNK*
Within seconds, the tip of the arrow arrived at the dummy and embedded itself in the right side of the dummy’s wooden face, a few centimeters away from its intended location.
"Amazing..."
With the simple click of a button, a powerful arrow could be sent forward.
The skill floor of a crossbow was amazingly low.
With a minute of training, Athen would be completely useless with a sword, only able to desperately swing it up and down while hoping it parried something.
Yet, with the crossbow, he could easily see himself at least putting up a fight.
Unable to hold in his shock and awe, Athen turned to Kai and said.
"This will suffice for now."
However, as Athen picked up another arrow to continue practicing, he soon realized that simply stuffing the arrow into the crossbow took much longer than he thought.
While Athen continued to practice reloading his crossbow, Kai began training his with his spear.
Covering both his shoes with a light-blue hue, Kai demonstrated his impeccable footwork as he seamlessly swung the top and bottom of his spear at the motionless dummy as if dancing with it.
...
...
...
After an hour had passed, the faceless celebrity finally began walking away from the dummy area with his spear, leaving an absolute wreck of a dummy behind him.
With countless holes all over its face and upper body, the wooden dummy was on the verge of imploding and collapsing.
Wiping the sweat off his drenched face and pulling back his wet hair, Kai paused for a moment as he spotted Athen on the ground, sitting criss-cross with the crossbow lying in his lap.
As Kai grabbed a towel and strung it around his neck, Athen continued examining the crossbow, attempting to discern the machinery behind it.
Perhaps sensing Athen’s concerns, Kai appeared behind him and said.
"You’re allowed to rent out weapons from the training hall, one at a time."
Shaking his head, Athen replied.
"You think I’m trying to learn how to rebuild it?"
"It’s either that or you’re trying to communicate with it, man."
Standing up and carrying the crossbow, Athen sighed and replied.
"I’m trying to improve it...the school clearly didn’t put much effort when they forged this, it’s not tuned properly, and the strings are too loose."
The most vital problem with the bow was the cheap material of the strings, as due to the low tension within the strings, the crossbow wasn’t maximizing its force output, making the arrows weaker.
Shaking his head, the blue-eyed boy checked out the crossbow with a lined paper near the racks, like taking a book from a library, and headed towards the exit.
Although Athen enjoyed using the crossbow, it...or any weapon for that matter, wasn’t viable for someone with his abilities.
After all, when he used his time-stopping ability, Athen would turn into an incorporeal being, and everything physical would be left behind.
Though...when he recalled how he had thrown the diamond over his hometown’s gate before activating his ability and caught it after, an idea did come to mind.
