The hunter training ground was located on the opposite side of the small river behind the ancient castle. There was an extremely wide grassland here. At this moment, there were five figures standing on one side of the grassland, drawing their bows and shooting arrows. The archery targets were a hundred meters away.
These five people were four men and one woman. Each of them had two servants dressed in servant's attire attending to them, handing arrows or serving tea.
At this time, the young man came into the training ground and clapped his hands. The five people immediately stopped and looked over.
"I'd like to introduce a new companion to you, or rather, your future senior." The young man smiled and pointed at Dudian, saying, "His name is Dudian. From today on, he will train with you."
The five people immediately looked at Dudian. Their first impression of him was that he was delicate-looking, and the second was that he was quiet.
"Instructor He, he's a newbie. How can he be our senior?" A fair-skinned teenager frowned and said.
The young man smiled slightly and said, "Dudian used to be a scavenger. He accidentally obtained the Marks of the Demon and is already a genuine Hunter. What he lacks is only professional skills. He will graduate after studying here for a year, and naturally, he will be your senior in the future. Unless, of course, you can complete your training before he graduates."
The five people were a bit surprised. Even the fair-skinned teenager who had spoken before couldn't help but take a few more looks at Dudian.
The young man took Dudian to an empty rack and said, "This is your position. Considering that you have the constitution of a Hunter, today's training volume is to shoot with a bronze bow a thousand times. You can finish when you complete this task. Don't even think about putting it off until tomorrow, or you'll never get to have dinner."
Dudian nodded to show that he understood. Having experienced the harshness outside the Wall, his purpose of training was not just to simply complete the task. Instead, it was to improve himself. No matter how much the young instructor set the task, he would push himself to the limit!
"The distance of each arrow should exceed the line below the archery target. In the first seven days, I won't require you to hit the target a certain number of times out of a hundred arrows, but the quantity of a thousand arrows must not be less!" The young instructor changed his previous easygoing attitude and said coldly.
Dudian nodded.
The young instructor obviously had arrangements in advance. There were also two servants standing in front of this empty rack. With a wave of the young instructor's hand, one of the servants handed the bow and arrows on the rack to Dudian with some effort.
Dudian took them. They were heavy in his hands, similar to the bow he used during the talent test before. But it was nothing to him. He immediately bent the bow, nocked an arrow, aimed at the archery target, and started shooting.
The young instructor watched from the side. After watching for a while, he seemed to find it boring and said to Dudian, "If you need anything, just tell these two. They are the servants specially assigned to your training."
Dudian nodded slightly and continued to bend the bow and nock the arrow.
The initial training for hunters was to shoot arrows repeatedly to improve the accuracy of archery. After all, this was the main attack method for hunters. When hunting in cooperation with companions, a single arrow's deviation or mistake might lead to a companion's tragic death under the claws of a monster. Therefore, hunters' requirements for accuracy were almost to the point of being extreme!
Next to Dudian was a teenager around thirteen or fourteen years old. While shooting arrows, he couldn't help but look at Dudian curiously, wanting to see how powerful a real Hunter who had mastered the Marks of the Demon was.
Soon, the teenager was disappointed. Dudian's archery level was even worse than his. He hadn't hit the target even once in more than ten arrows at a distance of a hundred meters, and all the arrows had missed the target. However, the distance he shot was quite far.
"It seems that Hunters are nothing more than having a stronger constitution. There's nothing special about them." The teenager thought to himself and stopped paying attention to Dudian, continuing his own archery training.
Dudian nocked the arrow repeatedly and shot again and again. After shooting dozens of arrows, he gradually felt that he had grasped some sense of shooting, such as the aiming angle, the approximate deviation from the actual position, and the angle change caused by the strength of the shooting force.
In the old days, it was extremely difficult to hit an archery target a hundred meters away. But the constitutions of Dudian and these five trainee Hunters were not the same as those of ordinary people in the old days. Needless to say about Dudian, these five trainee Hunters who could pull such a heavy bow were naturally people who had received the blessing of the gods.
You know, the heavier the bow, generally the greater the strength. And the advantage of greater strength, besides being able to shoot farther, was also higher accuracy!
The fundamental principle that the closer you shoot, the easier it is to hit the target lies in the strength!
"The hunting bow of an ordinary person will lose its strength after shooting fifty meters, and the arrow will slide down and deviate slightly due to the influence of the air current. However, for the heavy bow in my hand, a distance of eighty meters is like ten meters. The arrow is still flying with full strength. In other words, the stronger the tension of the bow, the farther it can shoot. It seems that I need to get a good bow in the future!" When Dudian grasped the sense of shooting, he also thought about his future plans.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
He kept nocking the arrow and shooting. The movements were monotonous and repeated. When the arrows in the back basket were used up, the servant beside him would help refill them.
When he had shot two hundred arrows, Dudian's hit rate had significantly increased. Basically, he could hit the target with two out of ten arrows. After all, his own constitution was high. Once he became proficient, the hit rate would increase rapidly.
However, hitting the target was just the simple beginning of getting into the trade. To take it a step further, the difficulty increased tenfold!
When the teenager beside him was taking a break, he accidentally caught a glimpse of Dudian's target and was immediately taken aback. There were more than thirty arrows stuck on the target, densely packed. And during this short period of time, he had only shot a hundred and sixty arrows. Even if Dudian was a bit faster than him, the gap wasn't that big. Calculating like this, this hit rate wasn't low either. Although it couldn't compare with his, at least there was hope of meeting the training requirements of the young instructor.
"Change the target." Dudian said.
One of the servants immediately put on the black iron armor and carefully ran over to change the target.
After the target was changed, Dudian continued to draw the bow and shoot arrows.
With a thud, the arrow hit the target.
Dudian shot another arrow, and with a thud, it hit the target again.
Dudian continued to shoot.
Soon, five out of ten arrows hit the target. Although three of them were on the outermost edge of the target and almost missed, the result was already quite good.
Dudian thought of the zombies outside the Wall, squinted his eyes, regarded the archery target as a standing zombie there, and the bullseye as its head. He drew the bow and continued to shoot without stopping.
After shooting four hundred arrows in a row, Dudian felt that his arm was extremely sore and swollen, and he had to stop and rest. Only after his arm recovered a little did he continue to shoot.
Soon, it was dusk, and the sun was setting in the west.
Dudian had already shot eight hundred arrows. After shooting five hundred arrows, his hit rate had instead decreased. The soreness and swelling of his arm made him unable to maintain stability. In the subsequent shooting, it was completely about training his arm and the sense of shooting.
At this time, the five trainee Hunters beside him had already completed their respective tasks. They were out of breath and said hello to Dudian before leaving one by one.
Dudian stood in front of the setting sun, his face covered in hot sweat. He gritted his teeth and kept shooting. Every time his arm was extremely sore, a voice would come to his mind, constantly persuading him to stop and rest. Every time at this moment, he would deliberately think of the zombies outside the Wall, their ferocious appearance, and the helpless feeling when he was being chased. Then a boiling power would surge in his heart, and he would continue to persevere in shooting.
Laziness is inborn, but perseverance is a choice one makes for oneself.