I’d eventually get frustrated from constantly shooting and missing with no idea of what to do, so I relented and requested that a marksman teach me the tricks and tips of archery, turns out I fucked it on multiple levels that its not even funny, primarily was on what bow I had chosen, the longbow was a suboptimal bow for the kind of archer I wanted to be, so I switched to the recurve bow, fixed how I shoot the arrows and learned the proper stances, the improvement was immediately noticeable, being able to actually hit the target in a repeatable manner.

This success only pushed me harder, but I was human and got bored after two hours of repeating the same routine, so I wandered the sect for the rest of the day, checking out administrative buildings, lecture halls, more libraries filled with books other than cultivation, the outside wall of the inner sect (not permitted to enter), the barracks and finally the most important is the food hall, the food was free and incredibly delicious compared to the junk I ate at home, they even had a whole bowl of salt and towers of different fruits, no wonder everyone that lives here seem so healthy, even the servants would have a feast for a meal.

Coming out of the food hall, I headed towards the Lecture Halls, hopefully catching a class before it dived too deep into a subject and turning too complicated for me to understand, I explored the hallways looking for a reasonably filled classroom, I found one and sat at the back, not making much noise for the benefit of my peers, or not? The Elder is talking about something I’ve been thinking about but had no chance to learn about it since the cultivation manual didn’t dive too deep to the topic, how to expand the dantian output.

I concentrated fully on the course, grabbing a quill and paper from a shelf nearby once I saw that it was free to do so, and began to record whatever came out of the Elder’s mouth and what's written on the board, treating his every word like gold, and they might as well be.

There are many ways in which you could expand your dantian flow, the most popular is the consumption of a blood core, a crystallized blood structure that could be extracted from those of whom have redirected their Qi into a particular place, these places upon death condense and hardens into a grain sized gem made of blood and in the centre containing whatever organs or limbs that got enhanced.

These blood cores can be eaten and will dissolve in your throat then it settles in the stomach and widens your connections to the Qi sub-dimension, granting you more Qi and by extension a boost to your overall power, this means you can eventually double, triple and quadruple the Qi flow, I’m already shaking from excitement.

The Elder proceeds to explain the standard units of Qi, 1 Qi unit is the amount an average human has, a low quality blood core provide 0.05 Qi, medium quality blood cores provide 0.5 Qi, and high quality blood cores provides a whole fat 5 Qi, although the high quality ones are very difficult to obtain.

The lesson ends and the cultivators leave, I follow while thinking of ways I could get blood cores, finding a group of cultivators would be most optimal for me, I’m not that proficient with the bow yet and anything that could get close to me would tear me apart, strength in numbers and all.

My archery training proceeded for a week before the marksman cleared me for field experience, I could now constantly headshot stationary targets but moving targets can give me more trouble but body shots are ripe for the pickings.

I spent the rest of the week familiarizing myself with the huge sect, discovering the armoury that provides normal armor and weaponry for free, though if you want anything stronger you would have to trade blood cores, there is also the servants quarters of the sect, quite large and filled with wooden houses, kitchens and smiths, and most importantly the Quest Hall were the sect organizes teams for missions, this includes monster exterminations, herb gathering and escort guarding.

I’m now waiting in the lounge for the team the clerk behind the counter arranged for me to partner with, I’ve equipped a full set of leather armor, a quiver filled with 50 arrows, a recurve bow and a dagger on my belt, the quiver of arrows will be a nightmare to keep all the arrows from falling off, but I’m expecting to move very little when in a fight, especially if I stick to the back of the group.

I spotted a group of people that are similar to the description the clerk gave me, two buff tall men in steel plate armor both wielding a sword and shield, a women in a leather set like myself with two short swords on her hips, and finally a young man wearing armour engraved with runes and wielding a two handed greatsword.

The young man in the back spotted me and lead the group, I carefully noticed how the two tall men followed his every step, they seemed more like bodyguards than companions, and with the fancy armor and his stride of confidence he is approaching me with, I would guess he is someone of importance, not born from the main line of an Elder, would have been protected way more than this, a child of a fourth born or fifth born, he is going to give me a hand shake, no arrogance, the female isn’t associated with him, left handed and right footed, light amounts of makeup, self-esteem high, cultivation technique leaning towards physical strength, first time going on a extermination since he isn’t that tense, the two men guarding him are mortals with strong bodies, brothers, raised for combat, father a guard or soldier, father serves the sect, fiercely loyal, raised for subordination, the female is a peasant born cultivator, light on her step, cultivation technique leaning on speed, fierce and hot-tempered, family problems? Probably, the first time fighting also, she doesn't want to be too intimate with the young man.

Woah, that was interesting, a mental evaluation in the time it takes for these guys to reach me, how much did that take? 30 seconds? That was brilliant, I stood up and gave the man his hand shake.

“Greetings friend, I’m Randal Sigmond, armsmaster-in-training, these two guys are Nog and Tog, and the beautiful lady is Foranda, nice to meet you mister…” Randal said with a smile on his face.

“You can call me Archer.”