Chương 147: CDM 3, Chapter 23: Field Tests

"Nad-Nade said 'no' to our Mount Monadnock proposal," Beth reported with gravelly frustration from my passenger seat. In the time it took me to walk around to my door, she had opened and checked her email. I put on my seatbelt but didn't start the car, choosing instead to sit in front of Frank's place for a few minutes.

"Are we really surprised?" Because I wasn't. In addition to our total lack of tangible evidence that a mega nest was in the area, a budget plan with line items like "helicopter rides, 2 to 10" didn't inspire the confidence someone needed to write a big check to a few YouTubers.

"It's what we expected," Beth admitted.

"I'm mostly trying to avoid talking about everything that happened in there."

"You mean learning you're inheriting a bowyer business and me getting handed a top-tier bow like I was accepting someone's second-hand tools?"

"Yep."

"I don't understand it either."

"It's wrong to accept it, right?" I set my keys on the dashboard.

"I had the same thought. Why do you think it's wrong to accept it?"

"Because… I don't deserve it. Because Frank has real family who should get it instead."

"He decided he wanted you to have it, which means he thinks you deserve it. Yeah, it's a huge deal, but it's also not like you're getting everything when the family gets nothing."

"I guess that's true," Beth said.

"I've not gotten to talk with Frank all that much, but he seems very aware of the choices he makes." Beth pointed at me.

"You're focusing on me to avoid talking about your new bow." I put my forehead on the steering wheel.

"The guilt is enormous. I hate when good things happen to me."

"It's terrible."

"That's my dream bow," I said.

"If I ever got a bow like that, I figured I'd be near level 20 when it happened. The real truth is that I knew I'd never have that kind of money."

"And I knew I'd never be able to afford to start my own shop."

"Frank screwed up everything," I joked.

"What a dick."

"Is it weird that I want to tell mom and dad?" Beth asked.

"I don't actually want to, but I feel the compulsion, like it should be automatic for me to include them in my happiness."

"Not weird. I still want them to be proud of me too."

"So you know that what they think doesn't matter, but you also really hope that they think you did good." I sighed.

"That sounds right."

"Is that another thing that doesn't go away?"

"I keep hoping."

"I think you deserve to enjoy the bow," Beth said.

"Someone did something nice for you, and you shouldn't feel bad about that. That should make you feel happy and grateful, not guilty." I thought for a moment.

"Frank has had his whole life to decide what to do with his business. He didn't pick you on a whim. You earned his respect and his trust. You should be proud of yourself for that instead of inventing reasons why it's wrong to accept the shop." We sat in my car for a few quiet minutes, both of us staring straight ahead as we reflected on the evening.

"How guilty do you feel at this exact moment?" Beth asked.

"Like, I personally pushed a bus full of special needs children into the river."

"What the fuck, Dorion?"

"You asked. And you? How guilty do you feel?" Beth turned away to hide her face. She mumbled, "Like I fed a wheelbarrow of kittens to an alligator."

"A single alligator?" I asked.

"Mine was worse. A few of your kittens have a chance to escape if it's just one alligator."

"None of the kids in your bus can swim?" I shook my head.

"Doesn't matter how well they can swim. Sticky windows. Can't get them down."

"Damn," Beth said.

"Yeah, life is cruel." And that sentiment had a layer of meaning that I could never reveal to Beth. I got my invite to the Unsung Heroes, something that I was enormously proud of achieving, but I could never share that with her. I wanted my parents to be proud of me in an Operant Conditioning kind of way, where it wasn't really my choice to want that outcome, but something in my wiring said I should. My desire for Beth to feel proud, however, was total and sincere. I respected her. I wanted her approval and praise.

I wanted to prove that Carminos could start from scratch and still achieve something. That couldn't happen, though. I'd have to settle for knowing that she would be proud if she knew, and that wasn't nothing.

"Sorry," I whispered into the darkness of the guild house when I heard Nathan stir. I had done my best to be quiet with the guild house door.

"I didn't think you'd be asleep already."

"I've got an early one tomorrow, so that usually means I sit in bed awake until an hour or so before my alarm goes off. But maybe this time will be different."

"But it won't." I heard Nathan's resigned exhale.

"No, it won't."

"Do you remember that time you offered to put an archery range down here?"

"Sure."

"Well… Frank may have given me a voidwood bow with a Summon Arrow enchantment tonight." After a crash and some fumbling, Nathan's lamp clicked on.

"Dude. Don't fuck with me," he said, squinting from the light. I set the bow case on the coffee table. Nathan eyed it suspiciously. I popped the clasps loose but paused.

"Shit. We can't test it out in here."

"I don't mind," Nathan insisted.

"That's not it. The bow is voidwood, so we can't just set up some cans. The arrow needs to encounter something living to leave the void plane."

"So if we tested it out, the arrow would leave the building and potentially hit some rando person." The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I nodded. Nathan scratched the back of his neck.

"Maybe we shouldn't tell anyone how close we were to doing something majorly stupid just now."

"Deal."

"I still want to see it shoot something, though. Damn." Nathan looked around the room for inspiration.

"Do you still have that cactus?" he asked.

"Nope."

"That was the best we ever did with a houseplant. That thing lasted forever."

"Uhh…" Nathan cocked his head.

"I realized it wasn't real and hoped you'd forget it existed."

"I saw you water it."

"Yep."

"What about that pretty flower it grew?"

"That's what made me figure out the cactus was fake," I said.

"That flower was hot-glued on."

"Now that you say that, it was weird that it was always in perfect bloom. Here I thought you were being responsible and shit."

"Me too," I admitted. After a few seconds to think, Nathan asked, "If you miss with a voidwood bow, does the arrow just keep traveling until it hits something alive?"

"No. The arrow can still only fly as far as the bow is able to shoot. If it runs out of speed before it hits something, the arrow stops and doesn't leave the void plane." Nathan ran a finger along the dark purple woodgrain of the bow.

"It looks cool as fuck, bro."

"I love it."

"This is like the Holy Grail of bows for a dexer build, right?" I nodded.

"I'll never have to worry about running out of arrows again. Frank talked a little bit about voidwood tactics, and it's got my mind racing."

"How so?"

"You can go back to sleep if you want. I'm sorry for making you talk about this when you've got work in the morning."

"Fuck off, dude," Nathan said.

"Tell me about these tactics."

"There's not a lot to tell. The idea was basically to get used to aiming at enemies I couldn't see so I could do damage from behind total cover and hit surprise angles along the way."

"That makes me wish we could play with it even more." I nodded.

"Me too. I'm going to grab a shower and try to get some sleep." Nathan groaned.

"Yeah, I should do the same." When I got out of the shower, Nathan snored softly, so I did my best to creep to my bed. I needed to sleep as well, but my mind was on fire from all of the recent events in my life. Jumpscares. Shadow hunters. Unsung Heroes. Nathan getting to join our Rapid Response team. Beth learning that she would inherit a bow shop. Me getting my own enchanted voidwood bow. But Intern Ali lost an arm, the guard lost her life, and two of the other survivors were in critical condition.

Surviving the shadow hunter attack earned me a shot at a different kind of CDM career, but so many people suffered from that incident. Celebrating my own good fortune in the wake of that was selfish. I tried to get my mind off my own life by scrolling on my phone. Japan's first manned moon landing had been put on hold after the discovery of active mana, but the launch was back on. Three months from now, they would attempt to make history.

Leonard Resmith was doing another round of fundraising for his interdimensional travel startup. Several billion dollars had gone into the business, and no results–and definitely no profit–had come out. A sizeable number of government representatives argued that we were rushing too quickly into conclusions about active mana and Stage 2 progress. The U. S. should devote more research to the topic before making choices that would destroy thousands of jobs. The bugbear crisis in West Virginia had plateaued.

Army and EPA statements said they were hopeful the problem was contained and that all bugbears would be culled from the area in the next month. Meanwhile, a town in the Alps appeared to have been ransacked by goblins. No survivors were found. My email dinged. It was a reminder that I had to do another psyche eval in the morning. Somehow, none of that reading helped me get to sleep at a decent hour.

"I hope you have your tetanus shots," Enforcer de Saint said as we all watched Kimmy's monitor. The drone slowly flew through the rain and over an old self-service junkyard, rows and rows of cars, trucks, and buses lined up to be stripped down for parts. Looking for a headlight for your 2005 Ford Taurus? Might be one on the lot. If you can find it, you can remove the part and then pay for the convenience. That's how it worked when this place was in business, at least.

Spring had yet to escape the clutches of winter cold, so the vines and trees and weeds that had climbed up and around and through the broken cars hadn't regrown their leaves yet. As the yard was now, goblins had hundreds of places to hide. If those plants were covered with summer growth, hunting in there would be like trying to bushwhack through a jungle. Nathan switched Kimmy into thermal. One bus lit up while every other vehicle in the lot was as cold as the falling rain.

"Sooo that's probably where the goblins are," Nathan said.

"Very astute," Megan teased.

"What do you think, Dor? Let me sneak close. You lay into the nest with your voidwood bow, and I'll mop up anything that runs."

"Are we worried about stronger types of goblins?" de Saint asked.

"Always," Megan answered.

"If the whole nest fits on a single school bus, I feel pretty good about saying there isn't a king or champion in there. Shamans and berserkers at the absolute worst."

"I agree," I added. Megan pointed at the screen while Kimmy hovered directly above the nest.

"If Dorion comes from the southwest, he'll have a broadside view of the bus. If I come from the north, I can run down any goblins that try to escape out the back. If they go out the front, Dorion can pick them off." I liked that plan and was excited to use voidwood in the field for the first time, but I was equally nervous. Target discipline was always important because friendly fire from a regular bow could kill a person just fine, but basic physics made that a bit more forgiving by comparison.

Since one of my voidwood arrows could travel through solid walls–or buses, in this case–I needed to be wary of firing any time I wasn't certain of Megan's position. And that became a rule: No firing through obstacles if I didn't have a visual on every party member in the field. The only exception to that was if Kimmy was in a position to play spotter. I wouldn't have a clear view of Megan's position for this place, for example, but she chose approach angles to account for that.

With Kimmy overhead, Nathan and de Saint could warn me if my aim started to drift toward Megan, and I wouldn't start shooting blind again unless they confirmed the path was clear. Learning to hunt like this would take practice for all of us. No one had concerns about Megan's plan, so we moved into our positions and began our approach, stalking carefully through the mud. The rain fell harder, turning the rows of rusted cars into giant metal drums, like the whole world was one big tin roof.

Nathan updated us periodically to confirm that he had yet to see movement, and then he confirmed that both of us were in our agreed positions.

"You're clear, Dor," Nathan radioed. Summon Arrow felt like unfolding an arrow from an invisible speck of nothing. I gripped the drawstring and pulled, the arrow appearing like I had peeled back some sort of curtain to reveal that the arrow was there the whole time. Each arrow was completely white as though it had been printed in one solid piece–shaft, tip, and feathers.

It didn't have mass that I could feel, so the dozens of small details that came from nocking and loosing, like the arrow resting on my hand or the weight of the shaft moving backward with the draw, were replaced by faint electric tingles. I combined Dual Nocking, Multishot, Piercing, and Vengeful Arrow to send 6 arrows at 3 points on the bus.

With Megan ready to intercept any goblins that jumped out the emergency exit at the back, I favored the front end of the bus and aimed an inch or two above where I expected seat cushions to be. If the goblins were sleeping, I guessed that they would choose to lie on the seats. I loosed my first barrage. The faint sensation of Momentum activating, giving me a speed boost for hitting two targets consecutively, suggested that at least some of my arrows found their marks.

Shouts and hisses rang out from within the bus, and the big yellow piece of shit rocked as every goblin inside panicked at once. I rapidly-fired single shots along the side of the bus, aiming at what I estimated to be head height for an average goblin, and tried to feel if Momentum triggered or not. That was harder to sense when my arms were a blur of magic arrows appearing and disappearing the moment I released the string.

One goblin fell out of the back of the bus but ran the opposite direction from what we anticipated. I didn't see this happen until we reviewed the footage, but instead of chasing the goblin, Megan threw an old tire iron. The blow popped the monster's head like a pimple. When I stopped loosing, the bus was quiet and motionless.

"Coming down for a look…" Nathan said as Kimmy descended on the far side of the bus.

"The thermal is still fresh even for the dead goblins, so give me a moment… I got one. Dorion, five windows back from the front, on the floor." I aimed and loosed.

"Nice fucking shot! Getting closer for another pass… Nothing is moving. Megan, you're clear to move in while Dorion provides cover." A few minutes later, Megan announced that all of the enemies were down. She stabbed all of them to be absolutely certain.

"Good shit, everyone," Nathan said over the radio.

"I think the Divas just entered a new era." Yeah, we definitely had. If I got good with this bow, my dexer build could give me complete control of a battlefield. I could lay down cover fire indefinitely because of the Summon Arrow enchantment, and I had the speed to spray a whole section with arrows to be certain I hit whatever was hiding. Holy fuck, this was cool. I was stoked to have this bow in general, but getting it before our big leveling excursion was excellent timing.

I needed more practice with voidwood, and grinding levels was the perfect opportunity.