Dimensional Descent

Leonel’s vision spun. When it cleared once again, he felt as though he was standing in the depths of space. There was a sea of vast stars as far as his eyes could see and beneath his feet, there was nothing but a small black platform.

However, Leonel wasn’t alone. By his side, there were three others, all three of whom were young men and surprised to see him.

Soon, though, their surprise turned into a frown. They didn’t recognize Leonel, so they also couldn’t understand how this person could possibly be bold enough to ignore the restrictions of the Bow Deity Party. They hadn’t even bothered to leave anyone stationed outside because this had already become the norm for long enough.

”Who are you?”

One of them asked this with a deep frown. It was impossible to directly attack anyone while in the Bow Pagoda, so words was all they could use until the event began.

Leonel swept gaze over these people and smiled.

”Leonel Morales.”

The brows of the three young men jumped. Morales? That was a last name anyone who was anyone in the Human Domain would know.

However, soon, they calmed. The Morales family had many members in the Void Palace, the number was great. After all, it wasn’t just the Seven Novas who carried the Morales name here. Not all Morales could instill fear in others like the Seven Novas could, or, rather… The Six Novas as very few knew of Leonel.

That said, most Morales were under the protection of one of the Six Novas, so the three of them didn’t dare to be too hostile with Leonel. Even so, that didn’t mean that they would be welcoming.

”Morales? A spearman wants to dip his toes into something that has little to do with him?” The young man, who went by Craes, snorted. He knew that it was already too late to kick Leonel out, so he was unhappy.

”Don’t be upset, Craes. The Bow Pagoda is usually worth a few days of torture, at least like this we’ll have some entertainment.”

The three young men laughed, but Leonel’s smile didn’t fade.

With a stretch and yawn, Leonel loosened up his limbs before waving at the air and forming a bow out of Emulation Spatial Force.

Seeing this, the eyes of three flickered, but they still shook their heads in the end as they pulled out their own bows. Although the Force Leonel had just used was one they had never personally seen before, what good was it if his skill wasn’t good.

”Keep talking about entertainment, Kysen and I’ll crush you even worse than last time.”

The third boy, Mallael, sneered. ”You two talk too much for second and third place.”

”You get one first place and suddenly you’re talking so big,” Craes sneered back.

”One?” Mallael laughed, holding his bow up. ”Your face is pretty thick. If my calculations are correct, this will be my 14th first place in a row.”

The faces of Craes and Kysen darkened as they brandished their own bows.

Leonel suddenly chuckled, causing the three to look over. But by this point, he had already stopped paying attention to them.

At that moment, the surrounding space began to warp. As though they had entered hyperdrive, the stars whipped by at blazing speeds.

TWANG! TWANG!

Leonel lightly tested his bowstring, not paying attention to the changes.

The Bow Pagoda didn’t have a fixed challenge much like the Void Tower. However, in comparison to the Void Tower, it was even more complex because it was prepared to provide a test to just one person or multiple people at once.

That said, it was consensus that there were more variations to be had when the pagoda tested more people at once, and as such, the rewards were potentially more lucrative as a result.

Whether or not this was actually true was unknown, but due to the sheer length of time the trial lasted, it was more fun to enter with others than to not to, so it was potentially an excuse others came up with to avoid the loneliness of training alone.

The speeding stars came to a halt and the skies trembled. When their vision adjusted, they found themselves standing upon what looked like highway lanes formed by starlight. They stood about 50 meters apart and targets in the distance moved from left to right.

The closest target was 500 meters away. The second was one kilometer away. The third, fourth and so on continued in one kilometer increments until 10 kilometers was reached, whereupon the next was 20 kilometers away.

The speed of the targets were consistent and not very fast, moving at maybe five kilometers an arrow. All things considered this wasn’t a very elaborate test, it hardly needed to be explained. Whoever pierced through the furthest target would win.

As for the more complex rules, there were some. First, one had to start with the closer targets before progressing. You would only have three chances to miss before you would drop out of the race. Finally, you could skip targets, however should you miss, the three chances would vanish all at once and you would be eliminated.

The three young men, Malael, Craes and Kysen all aimed at once, their arrows whizzing through the air and shattering the 500 meters target all at once.

They reset themselves in the blink of an eye, pulling their bowstrings once again and shattering the kilometer target.

At close distances, they could simply brute force it. Their arrows flew so fast that the movement of the target was almost irrelevant. The faster they were, the easier this trial would be.

By the time they prepared to shoot down their third target, Leoenl had yet to prepare to shoot at his first. The difference seemed obvious to them.

However, Leonel was actually just paying attention to their movements. After all, he had come here to learn first and foremost. But seeing their brute force method, he quickly became bored.

He raised his bow, his back tightening and his chest expanding.

TWANG!

Leonel’s arrow shot over the 500 meter target, high and far to the right causing the three to be shocked for a moment before their laughter rang out.

Unfortunately for them, the shattering of a target much further ahead jarred them awake.

Their heads turned, their pupils constricting as the five-kilometer target shattered into motes of light.

Leonel pulled his bowstring again, releasing a moment later.

BANG!

The ten-kilometer target shattered.