84 – When Was the Mission Completed?
This was no flattery.
Liszt also felt that he was talented.
Perhaps this body of his had a very strong lineage, an excellent genetic makeup, far beyond that of ordinary people. With reason and line of thought not restricted by this world’s era, he could even more distinctly touch upon the essence of cultivation.
Others might learn archery by simply honing themselves.
Not thinking about wind resistance, parabolic trajectory, inertia, Newton’s three laws of motion, and other knowledge.
He, however, could get a clear idea of an arrow’s motion trajectory by means of some simple rules of physics. Thus, he could get a quicker understanding of how to shape muscle memory and quickly learn archery.
He just lacked in the control of technical details.
Failure.
Improvement of technique.
Shooting arrows once more.
Liszt felt that once one got immersed themselves into this kind of simple practice, one would take joy in the suffering.
……
“Sir, I would like to ask you for a leave of absence for a day in order to buy out my family and bring them back to the Flower Town.” Karl smoothly took over the post of defense officer. In the afternoon, he had successfully established his authority within the patrol, and in the evening, he partook in the castle’s upstairs banquet for the first time.
He was restless from excitement.
Liszt took a bite at a loaf of bread and responded: “I give you the permission for this leave of absence. You can feel free to bring you family here, Teacher Gort will arrange appropriate work for them… That’s right, do you have enough money for the buy out?”
“I managed to scrape it together by borrowing a bit from Röhm and the others. My family is only comprised of four people: myself, my wife, my son, and my daughter. I have just enough to buy them out.”
“If you don’t have enough, then don’t hesitate to tell me. I can give you an advance on your salary or give you a low-interest loan.”
Karl used to be a retainer knight and his family were serfs of the Tulip Family. Now that he obtained the status of a freedman, he wanted for his family to also leave their identities as serfs behind.
As a follower of an aristocrat, he had enough strength to protect his family.
Gort toasted Karl in congratulation: “The families of Blair and Marcus lead new lives and are doing quite well, your family will be the same.”
Karl downed the beer and said excitedly: “The Flower Town will get better and better as it and Sir are beloved by the glory of knights!”
“I second that!” Marcus followed suit and downed his beer.
Blair and Isaiah did the same.
Gort waited for a servant to fill his cup before impatiently toasting once more: “In that case, let’s drink for the Flower Town and for Sir!”
Downing the cup.
Next, Gort said: “Karl, come back as soon as possible. There will be a caravan coming to the Flower Town from the Northvalley City three days later. The patrol needs to be on top of and inform it of the Flower Town’s rules.
“I will return as soon as possible and won’t delay the work.” Said Karl hurriedly.
……
“Tremblingwoods, release your magic!”
Outside the castle, while pulling Tremblingwoods by the leash, Liszt gave a command.
Tremblingwoods immediately barked and released a Rockthorn from under the ground in the direction he pointed. When Liszt took Tremblingwoods away, the castle’s servingmen immediately came over and dug the Rockthorn out of the soil using iron shovels.
The Rockthorn was soil condensed by earth-attributed magic power into a solid rock.
It was very hard, as hard as granite.
Each day, Tremblingwoods could produce a lot of these Rockthorns, after which, servingmen would collect them and use them as pavement. Liszt demanded that the main road between the castle and the town be made into a cobblestone road, that it be also passable during rainy days. Otherwise, it would be impossible to even go out during rainy days.
This road was currently forty meters long.
“Tremblingwoods, catch!” Liszt continued to train Tremblingwoods. He deliberately bought hares from hunters in order to train it.
Hares were very quick and they also performed a variety of evasive maneuvers.
Even if it was Tremblingwoods, a magic beast known as the king of the Thorns Ridge, it still took it a lot of effort to catch up to the hare. Only after running for about a kilometer could it press the hare to the ground and bite at its neck.
After killing the hare.
Tremblingwoods immediately threw the carcass aside.
It didn’t eat raw food, it had been raised by Liszt to only eat cooked food.
“Tweet!”
A large bird covered in down feathers stood atop the leather glove Liszt wore on his left hand. It was Blessedcurls, the Wind Peregrine Falcon chick. It still couldn’t fly, yet was still very noisy, issuing ‘tweet’, ‘tweet’ calls nonstop. Also, its food intake was large, it could eat quite a bit of fish.
Hearing Blessedcurls’ calls.
Tremblingwoods immediately gamboled, turned back, rushed to beside Liszt, and then drooled over Blessedcurls. It looked like it really wanted to eat the bird, to have a taste of it.
“Tweet!”
“Tweet!”
Blessedcurls flapped its wings. It was eager to fly and would probably try to fly once the down feathers were replaced with feathers.
Liszt had a headache; birds yearned for the sky, so it was difficult to bind them to the ground.
However, they didn’t exhibit the behavior of recognizing a master. Also, there had never been anyone capable of domesticating birds on the Coral Island.
“Stop calling. Do it again, and I’ll fry you.” Liszt handed Blessedcurls to Thomas. Afraid that it could fall and be eaten by Tremblingwoods, Thomas hurriedly put on a leather glove and took Blessedcurls.
Blessedcurls was currently roughly the size and weight of a sausage dog, so Thomas found it difficult to hold it with a single hand.
Liszt was considerate, saying: “Take it back to the nest.”
“Yes, Master!”
When Thomas returned, Liszt had already trained Tremblingwoods into exhaustion: “Take Tremblingwoods back and tie it up, I am going to practice my archery.”
“Yes, Master!”
Two robust youngsters quickly stepped forward and handed bow and arrows to Liszt: “Sir, here are your bow and arrows.”
They were Philip Wool and Xavier Oxdung. These two youngsters from the knight squad had already cultivated qi. Therefore, they didn’t had to train with the knight squad and instead assumed their position as retainer knights.
Liszt received the bow and arrows.
And then quickly entered the right state of mind to practice multiple arrows. Currently, he only had the Spiral Shadow Arrows left to learn. The other four moves, on the other hand, he had already learned successfully, but was not very proficient at.
“Today, I will try to grasp the Spiral Shadow Arrows, and tomorrow, I will begin practicing the ultimate meaning Multiple Phantom Arrows!”
After practicing from morning till afternoon.
He was already dripping with sweat.
Finally, when the sun set, he succeeded in releasing the Spiral Shadow Arrows. Four arrows spiraled midair, instantly changing into mirages, and then finally hit the target.
“Whew!”
He sighed in relief.
He rubbed his wrists, calling it a day: “After another week of practice, I should be able to grasp the ultimate technique Multiple Phantom Arrows.” He called out the smoke mission, taking a look at the content as per habit.
But as he did so, he discovered that the Serpentines had changed.
“Mission completed. Reward: black pearls from the deep sea.”
“Mission: a caravan is about to arrive at the Flower Town. This is the first time a caravan is coming to your fief. Please make sure that the trade totals at least three gold coins so as to attract the caravan over again. Reward: a bottle drifting in the sea.”
“Hmm?”
Liszt was surprised: “When did I finish the mission? I obviously haven’t learned the ultimate meaning Multiple Phantom Arrows.”
Suddenly, it dawned on him.
When he first performed [Multiple Arrows], Marcus’ Multiple Phantom Arrows had an arrow off target.
“Is this the reason? In fact, Marcus also has not grasped the ultimate meaning. He has divided it into two sets, but still had one arrow off target. Therefore, I only need to learn the proceeding double arrows, triple arrows, and multiple arrows to complete the mission?”
That was certainly the case.
Liszt was pleasantly surprised, smiling. Then, he immediately turned his attention to the reward and the new mission: “Black pearls from the deep sea? A bottle drifting in the sea? Are they connected?”