章 32: The Shooting Range
Knight Adam, upon hearing Howard's request to head to the shooting range, quickly ordered the candidates to form a line. He then leads everyone out of the room, down a set of stairs, and exit the building through the southside.
There, Howard stumbled on a cobblestone path, branding out into three main directions, one was a large field, another was a tall circular stone structure, and the final path to the forest nearby the training center. Adam continues to walk forward, headed straight to the field. Howard, assuming that he is leading him to the shooting ranges, follows him.
They eventually reached a fenced area, with an elevated wooden platform and some targets in the distance. Each target was shaped like a circle, made out of metal, and painted in rings of red and white. On each target, Howard could spot scorch marks, scratches, and holes all over the target, causing some parts of the metal to be bare.
Underneath the target was a wooden plate, with a number and a letter carved on it. Howard immediately recognized that each of these numbers portrayed the distance each target was at, relative to the platform. Upon making a few calculations inside his head, he figured out that the targets were around 12 meters apart from each other, with the furthest target being 144 meters away.
"Mr. Bright. The candidates are ready. Should we start the test?" Adam whispered to Howard. He nods in response, citing his approval.
"Right! Now that we are at the shooting range, I need each of you to stand up on that platform, and shoot each target you see," he instructs the candidates. He then points to a small shed to Howard's right.
"For the ones who prefer using a weapon; bow, crossbow, or whatever you like, I advise you all to pick one up from the shed right over there…"
"Alright then. Now, Mr. Bright…" Adam turns around to face Howard.
"Who should start first?" he asks. Howard starts to rub his chin, taking a gander at the candidates himself.
"Hmm… I don't know. Can I have the book first?" Howard requested. Knight Adam complies and hands over the book. Howard immediately started flipping through the pages of the book, skimming though most of its contents while scanning each candidates' magical abilities.
Howard found the situation he was in as the perfect opportunity to learn and observe the phenomena of magic; something deemed as fiction in his old world. Despite reading up a lot on magic, learning the theory and how it works, he didn't have the pleasure of witnessing the phenomena in person often.
The only time he saw magic in practice was on his first day, when he woke up in the prince's body. There were a few little neat tricks he saw at the palace after that incident, but none of them could compare to what the books claimed or that first encounter.
"Hmm… How about…. Knight Kris Falcone? Come up here and use a spell to hit all those targets," he spoke up. Kris Falcone was listed as a mage knight descending from a commoner lineage. He was proficient in Earth Magic, one of the 6 Elemental Affinities.
A knight steps out of the line and walks to the platform. He gets up on the platform and locks on the closest target. He raises his hand, and mutters a spell under his breath, causing his hand to glow a light dirt brown. In just under a second, the grass and dirt on the ground jolts up and crush itself to form into a ball.
Woosh!
It then fires in a split-second, hitting a bullseye and leaving a wide hole in the metal. Kris quickly moves onto the next target, to do it all over again. He leans in and whispered in Adam's ear, commenting on the damage he is doing to the targets.
"Hey, you think we might have to replace these targets?" he asks.
"That can be arranged, Mr. Bright. I will call someone if we need to replace them," Knight Adam answers, also choosing to whisper in Howard's ear. Once Kris Falcone finishes his demonstration, he jumps off the platform and returns to Howard and Knight Adam.
"How did I do, sir?" he asks for the two to comment. While Howard's gaze was focused more on the targets, Knight Adam praised him for his skill.
"You performed well, Knight Kris Falcone. Now stand by the rest of the candidates till..."
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Knight Adams, please don't rush the process. I am not done with this skilled knight here just yet!" Howard cuts in.
"I got a few questions I would like to ask him, to understand a little bit about his attack before evaluating it," he adds.
"Alright Mr. Bright. Go ahead," Knight Adam replies. Howard turns his gaze to meet Kris Falcone.
"Now, Knight Kris Falcone. How many times have you used that spell in combat?" he questions the man.
"Em… I use it a lot, Mr. Bright. Its powerful enough to kill a lot of weak demons, and incapacitate powerful ones. I am sure it will work as effectively on people," he answers.
"Hmm… Yes. I can tell. Do you always mutter the spell, or can you do it without any incantation?"
"To cast a spell, one must perform an incantation somehow. Though I prefer to spell it inside my head, I used my mouth to help showcase my attack," he answers.
"Hmm… Interesting. Say, can you conjure that dirt ball? Same size as the ones you used to hit those targets," Howard requests.
Knight Kris lifts his hands and creates a dirt ball without muttering a single word. Howard then takes the ball from him, to examine its properties. The dirt ball was small, with an estimated diameter as long as his middle finger. Yet, for a ball its size, it was surprisingly heavier than he expected.
"Hmm… This feels oddly heavy for a dirt ball this size. Did you do anything to manipulate its properties?" Howard questioned, wondering if the mage-knight somehow made the ball heavier via magical means.
"If I did, I did not do it intentionally. It is a spell I was taught when I was training with the legion of knights. It's a fairly standard spell," he claims.
"One more question. What if you are in a room where there is no dirt? What can you do then? Can you use other materials?"
"No, but I can temporarily conjure some if I wanted to. I can conjure this dirt ball even if there wasn't any dirt nearby."
"You can conjure dirt… out of thin air?" Howard asks, trying to stay calm.
"Well, not just dirt. I can also summon a few others. But yet, I can conjure them out of thin air. But it won't last long. Once I am done with my attacks, anything I made out of thin air turn back into… well… air."
"So, it is temporary?"
"Yes, it is temporary."
"Hmm… alright, I had enough. You did good. Now, get back in line." The knight bows down, and returns to his position. Howard starts to flip through the pages once more, trying to find another candidate to demonstrate their abilities.
…
For 2 hours, Howard stood there observing each candidate perform their magic spells. He goes through the elementals first before moving onto the archers. As he gazes at their abilities, he makes a few mental notes of everything he saw.
Every time a candidate finishes showing their skill, he always asks a few questions from each person to clear up any misunderstandings that might arise in his brain. Once Howard had ran through all the candidates with some kind of elemental magic, he moved on to the archers.
Though they looked like normal archers, their abilities to increase the strength of anything, their arms or the bow itself, allowed them to fire arrows at a high velocity with high precision whist using an ordinary cheap bow.
"Alright, I think that is everyone, Mr. Bright. What else do you want them to do?" Adam asks Howard.
"Nothing. We are done here," Howard replies, his eyes still glued to the book.
"Alright. Where do you want to head to?" Adam inquires. The candidates had already formed a straight line, while facing the cobblestone path, ready to head to wherever Howard wanted them to go.
"Sparing Arena. I want to pit these candidates against each other. See who is the strongest here," Howard quickly replies.
"As you wish, Mr. Bright." Knight Adam turns around and directs the candidates to the arena, the circle stone structure that was stationed next to the shooting range.
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