Chương 132: Chapter 131: Willpower

I sat on the grass for a while after everyone left, replaying the duel in my head. What would have happened if I had missed Dead Calm? I stuck the landing with Silk Shot, but Phantom would have been on me the moment I did, and I was out of my movement skills and my major cooldowns. Verdant Arrow just came back; that could have bought me some time, but I would have been in a disadvantage, regardless.

It didn't matter how much I thought about it, I felt like winning from that point had a razor thin margin, not to mention that Phantom had something up his sleeve he decided not to use. He was the strongest opponent I'd faced in both Godsrealm and Valhalla. I looked down at my gear. The Shadowthread Armor had absorbed hits during Accelerate that would have killed me in the Black Warg set. The Greenveil Shrouded Mask's Mistveil had given me the invisibility combo that turned the fight around.

The Cloak of Tidemark's Vitality kept me alive through Fog Blade. And Spriggan's Will was... a powerhouse. Two Uniques, an Epic hood, a Rare breastplate, and a pile of stats that most players wouldn't see for weeks. Without any of it, Phantom would have taken me apart. Then a thought hit me, and I almost groaned out loud. I told Danza to craft me an Epic chest piece. A breastplate commission that was supposed to be my biggest equipment upgrade since ages. Except I was already wearing the Shadowthread Armor.

A level 25 Rare chest piece with 72 defense and 18 attribute points I'd completely forgotten about until this morning. A crafted Epic breastplate would still be an upgrade over the Shadowthread, but the gap wasn't nearly as dramatic as I'd thought when I placed the order. I'd been imagining a jump from the Black Warg to whatever Danza could produce. The actual jump would be marginal at best. Still good, but not the game-changer I was expecting.

And Danza had an Exquisite-quality material that could go toward a different slot. I opened the message interface. Orion: Danza. Quick question. Have you started on the breastplate yet? His reply came fast. Danzaburou: Not yet! Was about to begin the material prep. Why? Orion: Change of plans. Turns out I already have a level 25 rare chest piece I forgot about. Danzaburou: You forgot about a level 25 rare chest piece? Orion: It's been a long week. Danzaburou:... right. So what do you want instead?

Orion: Can you pivot the Exquisite Ravenkin material into leg armor? Same level, same quality push for Epic. A pause while he checked his recipes. Danzaburou: Leg armor works. The recipe structure is different, but the Exquisite fangs are flexible enough as a primary material. I'd actually argue the scaling is better for greaves than a breastplate — the Agility and Dexterity bonuses tend to roll higher on leg pieces for Finesse classes. Orion: Even better. Danzaburou: Same price, same timeline.

I'll have everything ready by tomorrow. Orion: About that. Danzaburou: … Orion: Can you get the items to Carpa for tomorrow at 8 am? Danzaburou: You're really making me work overtime. Yeah, my colleague will have them by 8 am tomorrow, at the Carpa station. Her name is Rhys. Orion: Thanks, Danza. You're the best. Danzaburou: I know. With that settled, I turned my attention to the item sitting in my inventory. The skill book. I pulled it out and held it in my hands.

The leather was warm, the golden accents catching the last of the afternoon light. The clasp was simple: a small metal hook that held the covers shut. No lock, no key, no prerequisite beyond the class restriction. I activated it, and to my surprise, the tooltip said: Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. To learn this skill, the player must read the contents of the book in full. The skill will be acquired upon completion.

Never thought I'd have to manually read the whole thing for it to work. Maybe I should read more of Godsrealm's books in the future, I thought. They could hold interesting secrets. I found a spot near the shore, where the harbor wall curved south and a cluster of rocks formed a natural alcove shaded by a leaning willow. The water lapped at the stones a meter below, and the sound was steady enough to drown out the market noise from the district above. I sat down, leaned against the largest rock, and opened the book.

The first page was blank. I stared at it for a moment, wondering if I'd done something wrong, and then ink began to bleed through the parchment from somewhere beneath the surface, the way frost forms on a window: spreading outward from a central point, filling the page with script that was simultaneously unfamiliar and perfectly readable. The language wasn't English, but the game was translating it in real time, the text shifting into words I understood the moment my eyes focused on them.

The first pages were theory. They described mana as a substance with memory, not just fuel for skills, but a material that could be shaped, condensed, even fired. Rangers channeled mana through their bow whenever they used a skill. What most Rangers didn't know, according to the book, was that the mana could be separated from the arrow entirely. Shaped into its own projectile. Given its own path. A second arrow, made of spirit rather than wood and steel. The diagrams showed the technique.

It wasn't complicated in concept: you split your focus at the moment of release, channeling a portion of your mana into a construct that mirrored the shape of the arrow but existed independently of it. The physical arrow went where you aimed it. The spirit arrow went wherever you willed it. I kept reading. The middle section covered the hidden attribute that made the technique possible. The book called it Willpower, and described it as a force governing the strength of all spirit-based constructs.

There was no Willpower on my attribute list, but I hoped that didn't matter. I turned the last page, and the skill materialized in my vision. Skill Acquired: Soul Archery [Passive] (Epic) You can spend mana to create a spirit-projectile to fire at the same time as any basic shot or ability. This spirit-projectile can have a different trajectory. Mana cost: 15 per spirit-projectile Hidden Attribute Unlocked: Willpower (+10) Willpower: Increases the damage of Spirit-based attacks. Increases Mana by 5.

Well, that solves it. Just like that, I acquired another passive skill, and this was of the Epic rank! And what a skill it was! I thought about all the possibilities I had. Every shot I fired could become two shots. Every Piercing Shot, every Burning Arrow, every basic attack, accompanied by a second arrow on a trajectory of my choosing. An opponent blocking my real arrow would eat the spirit arrow from behind. Someone dodging left would run into a spirit arrow coming from the right.

A shield wall in PvP would take fire from two directions simultaneously, from one Ranger. And the mana cost was manageable. Fifteen per spirit arrow was significant if I used it on every shot, but the ten Willpower the passive gave me also added fifty to my mana pool. Soul Archery wasn't just a skill: it was an answer to the mana problems I'd been fighting since I started playing. Fifty more mana meant more skills per fight, more sustain, more room to operate before I had to drink a potion.

And I didn't have to opt into sub-par Intelligence builds now. Sure, I couldn't manually increase my Willpower, just like with Luck, Presence or Influence, but it gave a staggering 5 per point. This was worth more than any Epics I'd seen so far. I was about to close the book when the pages turned on their own. They flipped forward past the sections I'd already read, past blank pages, past the back cover and somehow continued, as if the book had grown new pages while I wasn't looking.

The ink on these pages was different. Green, with a faint glow, and the script wasn't the same foreign language the rest of the book had used. The characters looked more drawn than written, and the translation took longer to resolve, the words appearing in my mind a beat after my eyes registered the shapes. A notification appeared. Anomaly detected. Player 'Orion' has an existing bond with a Greater Spirit. Skill modification in progress... What?

The text on the new pages described a different version of the technique. A more refined one. A more… ancient one. The skill tooltip flickered, dissolved, and reformed. Skill Modified: Wild Hunt [Passive] (Epic) (growth) You forged a link with a Greater Spirit. You can spend mana to create Wild Hunt Arrows to fire at the same time as any basic shot or ability. This arrow has a will of its own, and will always find its target. Mana cost: 20 per Wild Hunt Arrow I stared at the notification with my mouth open.

An arrow that will always find its target? That has a will of its own? I couldn't even fully comprehend what all of this meant, but I knew one thing. This would change everything. Who knew what this was actually capable of? What could it have done against Phantom? Maybe a Wild Hunt Arrow would have ignored the ghost and hit the real body. Or against Lothras's shield, it would have curved around and struck from behind. Against a group, I could fire at one target while the arrow hunted another.

I could barely believe my eyes. Connection with a Greater Spirit, I thought. Don't tell me…? Then a second notification appeared. QUEST UNLOCKED: Seek the Elder Stag. No objectives. No description. No markers, no breadcrumbs, no system guidance. The same way it had been the first time. I closed the book after long minutes had passed. The green ink faded from the pages as I watched, the new section vanishing as if it had never been there.

When I opened it again, it was just the original text: Soul Archery, the theory, the diagrams. But my skill window said Wild Hunt. I sat by the water for a while, the book in my lap, listening to the waves against the rocks when Lune jumped out from behind a tree. What the—? I didn't remember summoning her. She curled up beside me, her head resting on my thigh, and when I looked down at her, she looked back with amber eyes that told me she knew exactly what had happened.

"He's still watching, isn't he?" I said. Lune flicked her ear and closed her eyes. I put the book in my inventory and stood. The sun was getting low, and tomorrow I had a dungeon to clear. I needed to get back to Carpa tonight, but my mind was still racing. And I had a new skill to test. I walked to an empty stretch of the harbor wall, drew Spriggan's Will, and nocked an arrow. I aimed at a tree fifty meters away. I fired a basic shot, and at the moment of release, I split my focus.

The physical arrow hit the trunk dead center. A second arrow, translucent green, veered left, curved around a stack of crates, and struck it from behind. One shot. Two impacts. Two directions. And one Ranger who just reached a whole other level.