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A man slowly made his way toward a church in the vicinity of Metropolis-D, heading to the LoA's lair.

After the drinking party, Josh had left his inebriated pet behind. Something about a loud-mouthed orc didn't really fit the profile of a guest for the LoA.

As soon as he arrived in front of the entrance gate, he crossed his hands behind his back as he began nonchalantly walking forward. His whole demeanor oozed of confidence with his head held high.

He began emitting pure killing intent, with the doors opening themselves on his passage. He felt like a goddamn magician performing a cool trick.

It turned out that a few members of the LoA had assisted to this feat. They stood near the entrance with their mouth gaping. How?! No matter how they racked their brains they could figure out an explanation.

"E-elder?! H-how did you do this?!"

"Do what?" Josh played dumb, enjoying their shocked gazes.

"N-nothing!"

"W-what are you here for today elder?"

"Will you be taking a mission on the killing board?!"

They excitedly chirped. What kind of assassins talked so much?! They were like puppies excitedly welcoming their master. He could almost see them waving their tails.

"Board? N0." He shook his head. "Bring me to the Matriarch instead." He waves toward them adopting a commanding tone.

"Y-yes elder!"

As they went deeper into the lair, they kept throwing glances his way. They were dying to know more but they knew not to insist. After all, it was so easy for an elder to kill any of them on a whim.

His curious guide brought him to a training room. Inside were various metallic dummies all around as well as a well as a woman brutalizing them. Her daggers drew silver arcs in air, slashing straight at the things vitals (?).

What was peculiar was that there were no sounds echoing at all. Instead of a training room, this could have been a meditation chamber with none the wiser. After terrorizing her opponents, she turned back:

"Clean this up and W-what?! What are you doing here!" She inquired, stammering. She couldn't take her eyes off him. Why him? Why now? She was akin to a deer in headlight.

Her dark hair were messy from the sweat, her face red and her body still covered by the same black plate armor. She lookedlively, perhaps even too much for her position.

"Aren't you happy to see me?" Josh teased her with a smile.

That's when a thousand thoughts seemed to go trough her mind as she blushed at times. Was she still thinking about her previous failure to control him? Either way it didn't matter.

"Let's make a deal." Josh proposed.

"What kind of deal?" By now she had managed to calm herself. She had to convinced him to teach her his version of killing intent. After all, it was so thick, so powerful and could extend so much! She would be crazy not to want to play with such an amazing thing!

"How much do you know about archery?"

"Only the basics, why?!"

"I want to learn." He shrugged.

There was something he desired? This was a great opportunity: she could exploit this! Her eyes began the shimmer with greed as her pulse accelerated. How could she trap him?

"How about I" She began only to become speechless.

Josh suddenly stepped her way, quickly yet incredibly relaxed. As he did so he began emitting that incredibly pure killing intent of his that made her entire body shiver. She blanked completely.

Before she could get a hold of her chaotic thoughts he was already in front of her, a tyrant's grin on his face. He ever so slowly approached his hand from her face, caressing her cheek.

She could feel the warmth of his hand, sense his piercing gaze sizing her and she basked in his aura. Without even realizing, she held her breathe, waiting for his next words. He approached her and she could feel his hot breath in her ear:

"Teach me all you know, without holding anything back. I'll reward you afterward." She felt her entire body jolt as if pierce by a lightning current.

The Matriarch of the Metropolis-D LoA stopped thinking entirely at this moment. In her mind there was only the sweet promise he had made her. Without waiting, she used her magic for voice amplification:

"All of the archers in the LoA, come to my private training room at once!" As meek and confused as she had been a second ago, her voice was now confident and imperial.

Hearing this decree, assassins came in dove. Anyone remotely capable of using a bow showed up. Why? Because they knew the elder had just arrived. Would this be a mission alongside him? Perhaps training?

They quickly formed a line, trying to look as valiant and powerful as possible. Was one guy even missing an arm? How would he use a bow? With his mouth perhaps?

"Sadly they are all we have as far as archers go. I can request people from another brand If you so desir"

"You did good." Josh barely praised and yet it made her happy. "Now, which one of you can teach me about archery?" He candidly asked. What about face? He wouldn't care about something so silly!

Their eyes enlarged in shock for a second, but then he saw their brains work at lightning sped to rationalize this situation. Then they gave him a knowing look as they "understood" what this was: The elder was testing them!

This made perfect sense! Why else would an amazing character like him request help from their lowly-selves? It had to be a test! That's how they anxiously answered his very basic request with all the seriousness they could muster.

They even competing with one another:

"Elder, let me show you my Arrow Piercing Archery technique!"

"Sir, I can show you how to calculate the perfect arrow trajectory!"

"Elder, I can teach you how to draw the bow with nothing but one hand!"

"Sir, how about I teach you? I come from a family of archers! I can teach you how to create homing projectiles!"

After that last one, many had given up. How were they to compete with that?! They awaited with bated breathe for Josh to announce his preference. Who would he learn under?

"Alright.I will learn" Josh casually comment. With who?! " learn all of your techniques." He happily decided.

The ones that knew archery instantly cheered. They were creating links with the super expert! As for the ignorant ones, they were promptly driven away to their utmost dismay, some even seemed to be tearing up.

"Alright. Let's do this!" Josh announced the beginning of the training session with determination.

How long would it take him to learn it all?! Well, he quickly manged to master inserting mana into an arrow. The issue afterward stemmed from the fact that whenever he did so, the projectile would become utterly incontrollable.

It was as if the arrow would gain a mind of its own. This in turn made targeting very freaking hard. Overall his progress was pretty good on the training dummies, but when it came to live targets.it sucked a bit.

At this moment, his archery trainers were all lining on the side with wounds of various sizes. They also had arrows sticking out of their bodies. The worst was that it had all been an accident.

Could this be considered a success? Josh was very good to hit target just not the ones he was aiming for. This was the strange part because in essence it shouldn't have been that hard.

It was just combining mana with his normal regular human archery skills that were pretty damn good. He was far from an expert, but he was at least able to hit a few birds flying in the sky with one arrow well normal ones.

This whole thing was a huge pain. But, even with the trouble taht it gave him he kept going for he wasn't one to give up.

That is how the scene soon became one of carnage. There was blood everywhere as all the trainers now looked like hedgehogs. Yet, they didn't utter a single complaint.

In their minds , they were actively getting closer to the famed expert. What was a flesh wound in the face of climbing the hierarchy? Nothing! They could easily endure it.

That is how he finally managed to learn a few tricks. This included shooting a magic arrow (without his magic bow), slightly altering the course of an arrow's trajectory and even increasing the piercing power of his shots.

How effective would all this be? Well, he had at least tripled his archery power then again this was only because of how weak he had been earlier.

eXTRA WORDS TILL CHANGED

That's how Minor managed to bear-hug her solidly. Once she got restrained, this fight turned into a one-sided massacre. Soon enough, her gory remains stained their bodies and the floor alike. It was everywhere.

That's when they fell to the side and began vomiting. Even if she was clearly a monster, they had just killed a little girl, a human one. They could be seen livid and despairing. The madness of the combat was leaving them as they began trembling.

That's when Minor slowly got back to his feet. He looked at the calmly eating Josh, dumbfounded. "How?! How did you know and since when?!"

"How did I know? It was obvious. I knew from the very beginning. There were signs, but you probably disregarded them unconsciously. Am I right? You didn't wish for this outcome."

"Why did you only tell Minor about it? You did so with that Nebulabucks bill, right?" AIYA added.

"Why? Would you have believed it if I had told you? As for Minor, It didn't matter how much disbelief he had. He would still protect you guys because that's what a vanguard does. Am I wrong?" Josh explained.