Dark King

Dudian still had his bow and arrows. Each pull was extremely difficult even painful but he still shot an arrow. The two servants who stood beside Dudian looked at each other in amazement. They had given him the 57th basket of the arrows. Each basket had twenty arrows in it so he had already gone past the 1000 arrow mark given by the instructor.

"Your excellency, your one thousand arrows task for today have been completed." One of the servants hesitated for a moment but interrupted Dudian's training to remind him the instructors task.

Dudian said: "I know, continue to change the arrows."

Finished the basket he continued to pull the bow to shoot.

He was too tired so he took a little rest to restore some strength and to continue to shoot.

It was eight oclock at night when Dudian's arm shook as he couldn't pull the bowstring anymore. He knew that he had to stop so he asked the young servant who was next to him: "How many arrows?"

"The twelve hundred and ninety arrows," replied the servant.

Dudian took a breath as he thought in his mind: "The difference is ten arrows to round it up." He intended to rest for a while.

After the intermittent rest, Dudian spent quarter of an hour of effort to finally shot another 10 arrows. He was satisfied and ready to leave.

At this time, the instructer came over and asked in surprised tone: "Haven't completed yet?"

"It's done," Dudian gasped.

Instructor looked at two servants who were closeby and they nodded slightly. They knew that Dudian was not fooling anyone. Youth smiled and said: "It's time to rest then. This one thousand arrow was based on your physical stamina. Others had began from three hundred arrows of every day shooting and now have reached eight hundred arrows every day. After all they physique is weaker than yours. So we will gradually increase the amount in your training. Don't neglect and be lazy! You got me?"

Dudian nodded.

"Go back and have a good rest," the young instructor waved his hand to dismiss him.

Dudian handed the bow and arrow to the servant, turned away from the lawn. He was so tired that both of his arms were slightly trembling.

He had to sleep in a place arranged by the consortium which was in the vicinity of the castle. Dudian came to the dining room. He knew that hunter's life was totally different from the scavenger's. Scavengers are going through a hard training, live in poor conditions and eat poor food.

It was totally different for hunters. As long as the daily tasks were completed, the other aspects of the material enjoyment was very advantageous.

A chef was ready to cook meals casually anytime before 9 pm. Moreover, there was no limit to how much you could eat.

Dudian arrived very promptly at 8.30. There was a fresh fried steak and a sharp-tongue foie gras ready for him. It was the aristocrat's favorite food.

After eating, Dudian returned to the room arranged by the young instructor to sleep.

The room was independent(not-shared) and very spacious. He enjoy it rare occurrence.

The night quickly went by. Next day Dudian woke up on time and came to the hall below the castle. He saw a lot children around the age same as him. He saw the trainee archers there too.

"Good morning." The boy saw Dudian and frankly greeted him: "My name is Texon. I heard you came back late last night. The first day is very hard. Actually they have given you 1000 arrows to complete. Indeed the people with magic marks have terrifying requirements."

"You'll get magic marks, too," Dodian said politely.

Boy's mouth upturned into a smile but didn't say anything. He said goodbye to Dudian as he went over to get his breakfast.

Dudian also stood in queue to get the breakfast. After a night of recovery he still felt sore feeling from his arms. He knew that today's practice will be much more harder.

After the breakfast Dudian directly come to the area. The other five hasn't come over yet, and servants weren't present too. Though Dudian ignored all of it.

After about hunred arrows shot, he saw the other five coming over. The young instructor was very free. As long as they completed the tasks given by him, he wouldn't get to force them to train. It was up-to them to arrange and manage their times.

They greeted Dudian and began to train.

Day-to-day life was extremely boring for the children of this age because of single training course. But Dudian was patient as he was aware and had the first hand experience of the brutality and destruction of the world outside the giant wall. The desire for strength was getting stronger with each and every arrow.

This desire had overcome all the other interests that could bring him joy and fun.

It didn't take long as the day went past.

Young instructor had come sever times to see the crowd train. He guided them with the basic positions of the archery, especially the way their shoulder, arms and other parts of the body played role while shooting. However he left as soon as giving them tips and tricks.

By the eight o'clock in the evening, Dudian's arms were cramped again. He had to stop as he had done more than the task asked him to do. However, today he barely bassed twelve hundred arrows which compared to yesterday was hundred arrows less. The main reason was that he had overdrafted yesterday and after-affects of it were still felt in his arms today.

Dudian went back to eat dinner and sleep without doing anything at all.

The next, fourth day, Dudian still went back at 8 o'lock at night.

Morover, the number of arrows shot had increased to 1500 arrows. After a rest at night, his arm's ache had gone and his body had began to gradually adapt to the new condition. By the fourth day, the number of arrows shot had reached 1600 arrows.

Because of high-intensity training, Dudian's body adjusted quickly.

Target hitting rate was twice as high than previous results. Almost every ten arrows were hitting the target. Only one or two out of ten arrows would deviate from the target. Of course, this odds applied to the first few hundred arrows. As he shot more the lower than target rates would decrease.

Other five were surprised at his improvement in just a few days.

However, the explained Dudian's improvement and related everything to the existence of magic marks.

Actually Dudian's improvement have let them be more competitive too. They took it more seriously as they wanted to catch up with Dudian at least from the target hitting rate.

In the blind of an eye a week had gone by.

Dudian's number of shots had increased to 1800 arrow per day.

"You should've adapted by now so from today onwards your daily shot volume shall increase to 1500 arrows! "Young instructor spoke in cold and strict tone: "Moreover, the arrow that hit the target much reach 300!"

Dudian nodded but didn't say anything. In fact, by now the number of arrows that reached the target had increased to 500. Almost double the amount set by the instructor. However, he didn't care much about the tasks set by the instructor as his goal was beyond the limit. He wanted to squeeze himself to the limit!

As for the completion of the tasks set by the instructor, he didn't consider them as competition at all.