Chapter 238: New Arcana

Reiji knows that the Arcane Stone he has is not simple… After all, this item was previously some broken pieces of a mysterious stone that many would be interested in…

One of them was the Red Wolf Gang from the Dukedom that was actually gathering all its pieces here in the kingdom… 

They were just unlucky that all of their hard work went to him after defeating their members.

The Chaos Knights even suspected that those people were truly working for the Dukedom and were only disguised as bandits in order to avoid being blamed in case they were captured.

Of course, the fact that the Guide, or perhaps Albeiron himself, noticed this item as well means that it's an incredible magic item of this world.

He can still remember how he was offered by the Guide to fix the stone after gathering all its parts. 

'This is incredible… But for this Arcana… I think it's not suited for him…'

The shinai thought after the red smoke dissipated...

What was in front of Rufus is a longbow with a majestic design. He's unable to tell what kind of material was used to make it, but the limbs have been decorated with gilded details and end in long points ornamented with various gems. 

The handle was then covered with obsidian cloth and decorated with markings similar to arcane circles.

'There's no quiver…'

Reiji muttered. This means that Rufus has to either buy one or perhaps the arrow would come from his Spiritual Energy… 

It must be exhausting to use if that was the case.

"Master! An Epic Rank! I did it!"

Rufus held the bow in his hands as the details of the weapon came to his mind… To his surprise, this is not just a normal Epic Rank!

"M-master… Why is it Awakened already?! Incredible!"

As far as he knows, Awakening of Arcana requires the help of higher-rank Arcanists to help in the process as they have to facilitate the connection to the Arcane World to strengthen the weapon.

However, his Master's Arcane Stone can skip that process and have it awakened-ready!

If the power of this stone came to the public's ears, then everyone in the kingdom, or perhaps the whole continent, would do their best to acquire such stone or at least learn its secrets. 

"Good for you… Let's see its skills then…"

[ Name: Ethereal Pathfinder Bow ] 

[ Type: Awakened Arcana ] 

[ Rank: Epic ] 

[ Wielder: Rufus Magnolia ] 

[ Durability: 195/195 ] 

[ Epic Skills: Tri-Shot, Zeal Arrow, Scouting Shot, Vampiric Arrow, Eagle's Sight, Arrow Storm, Slow, Evasive Chant ] 

"There's so many! I've never seen anything like this!"

Rufus was so happy after seeing the number of skills. He has already forgotten that he doesn't know how to use a bow and arrow at all… 

Nevertheless, it seems that Reiji was right to think that this weapon doesn't require a physical arrow at all.

They analyzed all the skills and realized that the first three skills, Tri-Shot, Zeal Arrow, and Scouting Arrow were the original skills of the Epic Bow…

On the other hand, the Vampiric Arrow, Eagle's Sight, Star Fall, Slow, and Evasive Chant were all awakened skills!

"Amazing… So this is what an Arcana can get after getting awakened… There's a ton of skills here…"

"You're right…"

Reiji is actually wondering whether the Awakened Skills would also disappear if Rufus died.

After all, based on what Rufus said before, the death of the Arcanist would also affect their Awakened Arcana. Their Awakened Skills would also disappear for some reason…

This is why when he found the Epic Laguna Sword of the Silver Swordsman before, it only has its original skills on it.

Reiji then checked some of the skills that made him quite curious. 

[ Vampiric Arrow: Absorbs the Spiritual Energy of the target. Maximum of 50 Units per arrow. ]

[ Cooldown: 120 seconds 

Energy Required: 15 Units ] 

This is a skill that is certainly welcomed by any Arcanists… Who wouldn't want such a convenient skill? 

If there's a choice for the limited slot of the skills for the Arcana, this is one of those that must be taken at all costs… After all, not only would you replenish your Spiritual Energy, it would also decrease your opponent's energy supply and it could be a game-changer in a battle…

If his opponent couldn't cast a powerful skill due to his lack of Energy, it may be a chance to quickly finish the fight and emerge victoriously… 

[ Arrow Storm: Shoots an arrow into the sky, creating a rain of arrows against multiple targets. ]

[ Cooldown: 20 seconds

Energy Required: 200 Units. ] 

Reiji was shocked after seeing such a low cooldown time! However, he quickly calmed down after noticing the 200 Units requirement… 

It is too risky to spend most of your energy on a single skill in a duel between Arcanists. So it is not a good idea to use the Arrow Storm consecutively unless the target is stationary.

Nevertheless, this is an amazing Arcane Magic that if used very well, can kill many targets at the same time. It's truly an impressive skill meant for an ambush.

Finally, Reiji checks the Evasive Chant…

[ Evasive Chant: Creates an active buff that provides an invisible armor to mainly deflect projectiles. ] 

[ Duration: 120 seconds

Cooldown: 300 seconds 

Energy Required: 40 Units ] 

"Whoah… This is really useful… Can you still use this Arcane even if the bow is just on your back?"

Reiji asked. 

If it is possible to use it like that, it means that even if Rufus switched to his sword, he would still have decent armor magic and this can be very useful in a sword fight. 

"Let me try, Master…"

Rufus took a strap on his bag and tied the bow on his back…

He then willed his mind to activate the Evasive Chant…

Whoosh~

The armor that seems to be made of wind manifested as soon as he controlled the Arcana… 

The activation of the skill is creating a cold breeze in the surroundings before disappearing completely…

"I did it, master… It would last for two minutes…"

The young man informed as he clenched his fist… There is no visible armor around him but he knows that something is protecting his body…

It also has such a comfortable feeling due to the refreshing breeze…

'Mhmm… This is good during summer…' Rufus thought. 

He then heard his master allow him to test all of his abilities now…

"Yes… Let me try this Arrow Storm!"

The young man was quite excited as he quickly left the house to practice outside… The house is just rented and it would be a problem if he accidentally destroyed it.

He deactivated the array covering the house to remove the energy covering the whole place…

As he was about to point the bow up and pulled the string to create an arrow, his master stopped him from doing so…

'Hey… That's a lot of Energy… Try to use the weaker ones first.'

'Ahh… I see… Alright, Master…'

The young man scratched his head as he used the Tri-Shot.

He then pulled the strings of the bow and it created a black arrow made of his Spiritual Energy… This is the time he has to activate his Ability… Because if he fired it like this, it would just be normal energy arrows that a common rank bow can do as well.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

As soon as he released the arrow… It actually multiplied mid-air and created two more copies of the arrow!

It hit the dummies outside that were meant to be used in sword swing practice. 

Then, after hitting, the arrows made of energy created a small explosion at its tip!

Boom!

This seems to be a very brutal arrow… If someone got hit on any part of their body, it would certainly tear off their flesh once it exploded.

Rufus continued his experiments as he used Eagle's Sight, which enhanced his vision, the Zeal Arrow that can be called a homing arrow, and the Scouting Shot that creates an arrow that will explode once it hit an object and send feedback to his mind…

The feedback actually contains the information on the surroundings that were affected by the shockwave created by the explosion.

It was such a magical ability that only requires 2 Units of his energy with 3 minutes cooldown.

"Master, I think I spent most of my Spiritual Energy, I can't cast the Arrow Storm anymore…"

Rufus said which reminded him of the problem of his lacking energy.

The bow requires Energy to be used which will become a challenge when using the Arcana.

"Haa~ Anway, it seems that I can also use a normal arrow… Perhaps I can purchase some arrows in the weapons shop." 

The young man added. He can indeed buy a quiver filled with good quality arrows as they've seen many of them being sold in the market…

Now the only problem is that Rufus had no skills in wielding the bow…

"You can do it… Swordsmanship and Archery is a good technique…" Reiji encouraged him after hearing the young man question his ability to learn the two Arts.