Chapter 13 - The Hunt Begins

Awakening the following day, Vahn immediately set about his final preparations for the quest. Since his inventory had long since been filled with miscellaneous items he had stored many of the non-perishable goods near the back of his home.

As a means of self-preservation, he was now filling his inventory with the various traps and gadgets he had been using during his hunts. He figured he could lay them along the path and if things got dicey he would be able to safely retreat. There was also the possibility any goblin chasing him could fall victim to the traps, giving him an edge should things go awry.

Leaving the cave, Vahn noticed the sun had yet to rise. The morning was cool and he could feel a refreshing breeze blowing in from the north-west. Confirming the time with Sis, he realized it was only 3:40 AM which would give him ample time to make his preparations and scout the goblin camps.

He moved towards the range he had established outside his home. There he had placed several targets at varying ranges between 10 and 50 meters. As a means of experimentation, Vahn decided to use the bone arrows with his older bow. He wanted to see how much damage they were able to do without the enhancements of his new bow.

After his experience last night he determined he was able to inject 'source' energy that could increase the damage output of his arrows by around 100 points in both physical and magic attack respectively. Nocking an arrow, Vahn pulled the bow to its maximum allowance while simultaneously observing the changing attack value through the system interface. It seemed as though the conversion was taking longer than the previous night which he assumed was a result of actually trying to fire the arrow instead of just holding it.

As the arrow began to approach 1000 attack, Vahn released the arrow at the target 10m away. The arrow seemed to have turned into a beam of light as it tore through the air and pierced the target. It continued to travel unhindered for several meters until it disappeared into the treeline in the distance.

Vahn was completely shocked at the penetrating power of the arrow and began to commend himself for his selection the previous night. Without searching for the arrow he had just fired, Vahn inquired with Sis about the time it had taken to charge the arrow to its maximum potential. He learned that instead of the 10 seconds recorded the previous night, it had now taken 17, almost twice the previous amount.

Moving on with his experiment, he now decided to use his new bow using his old arrows. He didn't know the safety limits of the bow, but since the attack power of bow was typically much lower than the arrows themselves he decided to limit it to 100 points. The new arrow itself was plenty powerful and he was unwilling to risk breaking what could become the key to completing the upcoming quest.

He nocked the arrow into the new bow and began channeling 'source' while observing the change in its stats. He noticed that as the attack value increased it became increasingly difficult to keep the bow fully drawn. Given the increased size, it seemed to take much more energy to increase the strength of the bow so Vahn began to worry about the efficacy of its use.

After approximately 7 seconds the value finally reached 100 in both physical and magical attack. Loosing the arrow, it flew silently towards the 20m target (the 10m target got destroyed). Upon contacting the wooden support the arrow penetrated about 3/4 it's length into the log. It was significantly weaker than the previous arrow but had the added benefit of flying almost completely silent. Looking down at the bow in his hands, he noticed the runes on its surface were still emitting light which caused him to investigate it through the system. Though the bow took much longer to supply energy to, it appeared to retain the energy for a longer period of time as Vahn noted the attack values slowly decreasing.

Pleased with his discovery, he moved on to his final test using both the 'Runic Tempered Yew Shortbow' and 'Runic Tempered Bone Arrows' together. He noticed that it was impossible to split his focus between both the bow and arrow, so he experimented with channeling 'source' energy into each of them and seeing how fast they lost the charge. The arrow lost energy almost instantly since the runes along the shaft seemed to only serve the purpose of funneling the energy into the arrowhead. As soon as the supply stopped the energy would begin to rapidly disperse. As he had expected, it seemed the complexity of the runes on the bow gave it a far greater ability to store energy as compared to the arrows.

He charged the bow to around 110 attack power before switching his focus to the arrow. After about twenty seconds the arrow was fully charged and he noticed the bows' attack had only decayed by eight points.

Increasing his focus to the limits, Vahn took aim and loosed the arrow towards the target 50m away. Compared to the first experiment which produced an exceptionally loud sound, the arrow now traveled almost silently which Vahn assumed was a hidden property of the magical bow. Almost immediately after that thought crossed his mind, the arrow made contact with the target and easily pierced it through, continuing its journey unabated into the woods beyond.

Traveling through the woods with a practiced pace, any observer that had known the boy previously would be shocked with how smoothly he transitioned through the various obstacles. He kept a steady pace and generated very little sound as he moved unhindered, a far cry compared to the many scratches and abrasions he had acquired on his initial treck through the forest.

Satisfied with the r