The Elven Archery Trials
Gulp.
Tension filled the faces of the party members as they followed the elves. It was only natural.
"Why so solemn?"
"Ugh, look at those elves' eyes."
Hundreds of elves watched them with wary gazes, openly brimming with distrust toward outsiders.
"By the way, Yeon-ho. If Si-a just aces the test, we auto-pass, right?"
"Yeah, Si-woon said so… but more than that, it's colder than I expected."
The seventh floor's setting was closer to winter than anything else.
Hoo.
Even a light breath sent white mist curling into the air.
"Si-a, will you be okay?"
Baek Yeon-ho asked, concern plain in his voice. No matter how high one's stats, bone-chilling cold still locked the body. Numb fingertips and rigid muscles would inevitably hinder the delicate motion of drawing a bowstring.
Kang Si-a simply shook her head, calm as ever.
"I'm fine."
Her voice held its usual composure.
"I did plenty of low-temperature training back when I was competing, and I went winter hunting with my father a lot when I was little. This much is familiar."
Thump, thump.
They kept walking until an altar came into view. Ten targets stood ready, each set at a different distance and angle.
"I heard those ones claim they hunt demons?"
"They look human."
"Human archery alone won't be enough to handle demons."
With every step the elves' blatant whispers drifted over. Kang Si-a suppressed her irritation and took her place. She drew her bow and lightly stretched the string.
"The first trial is hitting the targets."
The elderly elf spoke in a solemn tone.
"Hit eight or more of the targets you see there. You have only one chance. Are you ready?"
"Yes."
For other archers it might have been different, but for Kang Si-a this was child's play.
Shall I play a little?
Swoosh.
She adjusted her grip on the Moonlight Bow. The surrounding murmurs, the biting air, the suspicious stares of the elves—all of it vanished as if it had never existed. In her world there remained only the bow, the targets, and the wind flowing between them.
Hoo.
She exhaled softly; white breath scattered. Her eyes narrowed. Every sense sharpened to a razor's edge.
You feel it. The enemy's movement, the flow of the wind, even the faintest tremor in the air.
Hyun Si-woon's—no, Ha-wol's—teachings flashed through her mind.
Eagle Claw Divine Archery.
There was no need to rely on the eyes alone. Feel the entire forest with body and soul. The moment she thought it, everything resolved into one vast, vivid painting inside her head.
Srrrk.
Kang Si-a drew ten arrows from her quiver at once. They fanned between her fingers like the ribs of a fan. Quiet gasps rose from the watching elves at the bizarre sight.
"What is she…"
"Rapid fire!"
"She's going to loose ten shots in rapid fire! How arrogant!"
Even the elderly elf's brows twitched. Rapid fire was a technique only the gifted among the elves could manage. Kang Si-a paid them no mind.
Creak!
She nocked the first arrow and drew the string to full moon. The bowstring stretched until her muscles screamed, yet her stance never wavered an inch—still as a thousand-year-old tree rooted deep in the earth.
In the same breath—
Flash!
Her pupils snapped open, gleaming sharp as a hawk's.
Twang—!
The instant the first arrow left the string her hands blurred beyond sight. Nock, draw, release—each motion flowed into the next as one continuous stream.
Piiiiiiiiing!
Ten bursting notes rang out almost as one, as if she were plucking an instrument. Ten silver flashes carved separate paths through the air: one straight, one in a high arc, another bending cunningly as though brushing past a branch.
Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!
Every arrow buried itself dead-center in every target without a hair's deviation.
"…!"
The elves' mouths fell open. An astonishing realm. Even for elves this was archery bordering on pure artistry—something a human body should never have been able to produce.
Hoh.
Elanus's eyes narrowed. He had lived for centuries watching countless elven archers grow. A single glance at the way someone drew a string told him nearly everything about their skill.
More the realm of pure sense than technique.
Not a wasted motion. Natural as a dance, fluid as flowing water.
Hard to achieve that with calculation alone.
Had she been an elf, massive support would already be pouring in. But she was an outsider. Better, under ordinary circumstances, to throw her straight into the fight against the demons.
"Good."
Normally the trial would end here. With skill like that she more than qualified to stand against a demon legion.
Yet—
I'm curious.
For the first time in hundreds of years Elanus felt pure curiosity. He wanted to see for himself just how deep that talent ran, where its limits truly lay. The long-forgotten thrill of facing a gifted successor made the old elf's heart beat anew.
"I will change the method of the trial."
The surrounding elves murmured at the sudden declaration.
"The trial for outsiders is finished. From this moment we will proceed as our forest's children do."
Ohh!
It's real!
Si-woon was right.
The party clenched their fists. He had said a perfect score on the first trial would open a hidden route exactly like this.
"The trials consist of five stages in total. You have just passed the first, so we begin from the second."
Children of the forest took up the bow from the moment they were born. For such children to become warriors who fought demons, they needed to clear at least the second stage. In other words, the trials were considerably difficult.
Elanus continued.
"Even among our elves, children called geniuses find the fourth stage hard to pass. But if—if you clear the fourth stage—then by the forest's tradition we will bestow our tribe's treasured bow upon you."
That's it!
Kang Si-a's eyes lit up.
The unique bow Oppa received.
In his Tower of Despair days Hyun Si-woon had cleared the fourth stage. After that he had attempted the final fifth stage and quit, he said.
If Oppa gave up…
How hard could it be?
Hyun Si-woon's face flickered through her mind—the man who knew everything and accomplished everything, who pierced the tower's secrets and even wielded a Ranker's power, an overwhelming existence. And yet when it came to the bow he had declared surrender.
So that was why.
Why he had asked her to teach him archery and kept obsessing over it.
Somehow…
A faint smile rose unbidden to Kang Si-a's lips. Fear was not the first emotion to bloom. A quiet competitive fire was.
She had taken up the bow from birth. From the moment her father's hand first guided hers to the string, the bow had never been mere weapon or sport. It was part of her body, her breath, the very window through which she saw the world. Even when she crushed countless rivals to wear the Taegeuk mark, even when she stood on the highest step of the Olympic podium, she had never once imagined defeat where the bow was concerned. It was the root of her confidence.
Oppa may be a genius of the sword, but with the bow I can shoot better.
Of course Hyun Si-woon's archery was impressive in its own right; he improved by the day and hit ordinary targets with ease. Yet Kang Si-a knew by instinct that in archery alone she and he stood on different planes. This was not arrogance. It was unshakable faith in the talent she had spent a lifetime honing.
Her gaze grew deeper and stiller than ever before—like a lake on the eve of a storm.
"I'm ready."
Elanus nodded at her answer and gestured toward a single remaining target. The other nine had already vanished, leaving only one standing alone.
"This is the second trial. Simply hit that and you pass."
Where the first had tested accuracy—the basic qualification of any archer—the second tested prediction: read the flow of a rapidly moving target and pierce it while it moved.
"You have a total of three chances…"
Twang, thwuck!
While he was still speaking the arrow left the string and punched clean through the target.
"…?!"
The elves' eyes flew wide again. She just… casually shot it and hit? She hadn't even waited for it to stop, nor aimed at its present position. The arrow flew into empty air—toward the future path the target had not yet reached.
Luck…?
No—at this level isn't it the realm of foresight?
Genius elves can read a target's path from the spirits' movements… but she's human!
Amid the shock only Elanus swallowed hard. He had seen it—the fleeting instant she drew the string. She had not predicted. It had simply been natural. The way anyone easily picks up a ball rolling across the floor… she had loosed and struck as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Absolutely not luck.
Elanus was certain. That was pure sense, a shot of inevitability forged by innate talent.
Kang Si-a, on the other hand, could not understand.
This easy?
She tilted her head. She had tensed for a real trial, yet this was easier than her usual training. Think about the conditions under which she had always shot: on cliffs lashed by wind and rain, in the heart of chaotic battlefields where dozens of monsters charged from every side. Even then she had seized the tiniest openings and driven arrows through the vitals of living, unpredictable prey—situations where a single miss could cost a comrade's life. To her, a target moving in a predictable pattern inside a fixed space felt like nothing more than a child's toy.
Elves… not much to them, huh?
She was just about to let disappointment show when—
"Th-the third trial."
Elanus gestured.
Whoooosh!
Lesser spirits began to appear among the targets—fire, water, earth, wind. Gale-force winds howled between them; rain sheeted down. The ground beneath Kang Si-a's feet trembled, and heat haze rose from superheated air, warping every sense of distance.
Hmm?
She watched the phenomenon with mild curiosity. The work of elven spirit-mages, perhaps?
"The third tests the senses. Hit that same target again while your five senses are interfered with."
Swoosh.
Kang Si-a raised her bow again, utterly unfazed, and drew the string.
"Once more you have three chances, and—"
Twang, thwuck!
Exactly the same as before. Without the slightest tremor, as if inevitability itself had taken flight, the arrow drove straight through the heart of the target.
"…!"
Success on the first attempt yet again. No preparatory motion whatsoever.
Elanus could no longer find words.