Chapter 142: Can we improve? (1)

Eldrian looked at Cephaphyr with great excitement, waiting for the first arrows to form from the tree. This took much longer than when Cephaphyr had made the platform, quickly causing Eldrian to lose much of his enthusiasm. Still, he stayed. Curious about what Cephaphyr would be able to make.

After five minutes the arrow finally finished growing. Eldrian looked at it in amazement, simply blown away by what Cephaphyr had done.

He had hoped for a simple crude arrow, but this one looked like a masterpiece.

The arrow had grown from the tree, slowly. Like a fruit. It had started as a small bud, growing from a small connecting stalk. Slowly this bud had unfolded to show the fletching of the arrow.

Eldrian had expected this to simply be wood, but instead, it was made from the leaves of the tree. These leaves were embedded, like with normal arrows, forming proper fletchings. Eldrian had no idea how this was even possible.

After this, the arrow shaft had formed. This had taken most of the time, with it looking almost like a branch growing. Only that this piece of wood was completely straight.

Finally was the head, which was simple. The arrows simply started narrowing, until it formed a very fine point. This pointed head of the arrow was still connected to the tree through the stalk.

Eldrian reached out to the arrow and pulled it off, just like one would a fruit. It came loose easily. The stalk having connected past the final point of the arrow's head. This resulted in the arrow point being even sharper than Eldrian had thought possible.

Holding it in his hand Eldrian simply gazed at it in amazement.

The fletching was quite sturdy, yet it gave way to his fingers. The shaft seemed to have carvings in it, looking like runes. Eldrian ran his fingers over the shaft in wonder and finally reached the tip.

Eldrian simply enjoyed its beauty for a while.

Finally having taken it all in, Eldrian started wondering how good the arrow was. Looks did not mean much in their current situation.

Using Inspect Eldrian was left astounded by what it returned.

[Alderleaf Arrow]

[Grade: Magic, Failed]

[Tier 0]

[Damage: +10 [Physical pierce damage]]

[Durability: 47]

[A special arrow made from the tree of an Alderleaf through the magic of an Alicorn.]

[[Cannot be repaired]]

"Wow." Eldrian let out as he saw that the arrow was actually magic grade. Something which he had never even thought of.

That is simply insane.Eldrian thought as he looked at the bonus damage it gave. It might not look like much, but his spear only did 22 damage. Heck, the Tier 4 arming sword he had only did 14 damage, meaning this arrow was almost better than the sword.

The only thing limiting it was that its durability was really low.

'Cephaphyr, this is amazing. But would you be able to make many of them?' Eldrian asked, wondering if he just found a bug in the game. If Cephaphyr could make them infinitely, then it would simply be broken.

'I don't know. It was quite hard to do it, but I also did not know what I was doing. Let me try again.'

Eldrian waited patiently for Cephaphyr to do his magic. While waiting he shared the news with the others, causing Terlas to basically drool as he looked at the arrow.

Terlas had never used magic grade arrows, it was simply too expensive. While his bow had been a Tier 3 magic bow. His arrows had always only been Tier 4 normal arrows, giving him only 4 bonus damage.

Not only that, but their durability was also far lower. His normal arrows were only usable for between ten and fifteen times. This arrow would last twice as long.

This did not mean too much to, since arrows often went missing. But it was still something great, especially when considering the cost of getting replacements.

Then there was also the important fact that Terlas no longer had his own bow. Instead, he was using the Tier 4 normal bow Eldrian had given him. Along with the Tier 3 arrows, Eldrian had gathered during the first event. With these, his damage was limited to 15, while if he had these new arrows he would be almost back to his normal damage. Sure it would still be slightly lower, but it would be much better.

Terlas really wanted to have a full quiver of these arrows, but he felt it would be a waste to use them on simple goblins. He would instead want to save them for emergencies and really strong enemies.

Around four minutes later Cephaphyr finished another arrow, happy he turned to Eldrian. 'I can still become a little faster. But the tree will only be able to give eight more arrows.'

Eldrian was shocked by what Cephaphyr said. This certainly was not too insane, as the amount seemed to be limited. But they were in a literal forest, thus the limit per tree did not really matter for them.

The true limiting factor was the time it took Cephaphyr, but Eldrian felt this was something that could not be helped. Not when the product was already so good. He felt more like the time needed was too little.

'How many trees would be able to make these arrows?' Eldrian asked, hoping that the forest existed just of these wonderful trees.

'I have no idea.' Cephaphyr answered truthfully, 'But these trees are common at the edge of the forest.'

Wait... Does this mean these trees are the worst?Eldrian asked himself, struggling to swallow as he now started seeing this forest as a treasure trove.

Eldrian took some time to get over this, after which he was already fully rested. Instead of directly going out he wanted to find what the limits were to Cephaphyrs 'fruit' making ability.

'Hey Ceph, do you think you will be able to make a short spear.' Eldrian asked, hoping that Cephaphyr could make him a few javelins.

After a bit of testing and sharing his own knowledge, they found that Cephaphyr would be able to make a certain type of short spear. One without anything fancy and it would need a new tree. Cephaphyr also told Eldrian that it would take him quite some time to make it.

Eldrian did not mind any of this. He asked Cephaphyr to start while he would go for the second attempt at kiting the goblins. He first wanted to make sure that they would not enter the forest no matter what.

If he could confirm this then he planned to allow Sabrea to also kite the goblins. She should certainly also be able to do what Eldrian had done before.

Taking a deep breath and one last look at Cephaphyr, who was focusing on a tree. Eldrian smiled in anticipation of getting another magic weapon.

Shaking his head to get his mind ready for his task, Eldrian left the forest. He did not run to the 50-meter mark. Instead, he walked along the way, finding a few arrows as he did.

Eldrian realized that this was useless, it had increased the time it took him to reach the mark by a great deal. Almost three minutes had passed, yet he had only picked up ten arrows.

Having reached the 50-meter mark, the goblins noticed him again. But they did not directly charge.

Eldrian frowned as he feared that they were learning. Taking a few steps closer the goblins seemed unable to contain themselves and started rushing towards him.

So, they are becoming cautious. But ultimately they are still dumb monsters. Eldrian smirked as he repeated what he had done last time. Quickly finding something new and troublesome.

The goblins they had killed last time were still there. Lying in his path. This made it harder for Eldrian to kite them. He now had to also focus on not tripping along with keeping his distance and attacking them.

As such he only gained around 30 kills again. He had thought he would be able to claim far more now that he already knew what to do.

Sighing he looked at the goblins who were shouting in frustration at him. He smiled as he saw them not daring to enter. With this Eldrian started his journey back to the others, confident that the forest was truly a safe place.

Back with the other, Eldrian saw that Cephaphyr was still busy with one of the trees. Looking at the time he saw that Cephaphyr had been at it for almost an hour now.

He sighed as he realized he could not use these spears as disposables. Still, he could not wait to see what Cephaphyr made for him.

Back atop the platform, Eldrian looked at the others.

"It seems that goblins are learning and becoming cautious. Even after only two goes at it." Eldrian commented, wanting to know what the others thought of this.

"That isn't a problem, they would only act like that until you bother them. For now, it is coming to a certain distance from them. This might keep increasing but we can always draw them out." Terlas said as he played with the two arrows Cephaphyr had made. Looking at them fondly.

"I also thought that would be the case," Eldrian replied, turning towards Sabrea. "We won't be able to kill enough with only Margit and Terlas attacking. I mean Terlas won't even be able to attack after another round or two."

Everyone nodded to what Eldrian said. They had probably killed close to 500 goblins already, yet it did not matter. The mass of goblins barely shrunk.

"So I am thinking that we can all slowly start going out."