"Captain Roderick, how are your archery skills?"

Colin wears a black trench coat and a felt hat, and the cold weather makes him reluctant to take his hands out of his jacket pockets.

Perhaps because of the altitude, the Late Winter Fortress is cold almost all year round.

"Also...... OK. ”

Roderick didn't expect the lord to ask this question as soon as they met, hesitated for a moment and continued: "Because of the peculiarity of the fortress, we have been training in archery for the longest time. ”

Colin nodded in understanding, and stretched out his hand to beckon Anne and the others beside him to come over.

Anne Heckot led seven or eight young manor students up, each with a quiver in his hand, but the number of arrows in the quiver was small.

"It's a modified arrow, and I want you to experiment with it."

Colin casually pulled an arrow made of birch from Anne's quiver and handed it to Roderick.

Roderick took the arrow, which looked like it didn't make a difference, and paused for a moment. Then the heavily armed captain of the guard took off the massive iron bow he was carrying with one hand and walked to the city wall.

"If you can, I'd like you to aim for their chests." Colin makes a request before the other person makes a move.

In normal offensive and defensive battles, a large salvo does not require too high accuracy, but this does not mean that soldiers cannot be accurate, and Roderick, who is one of the best archers in the team, does not care about this requirement.

"Yes, sir."

Not to mention the chest, you can shoot the nose.

Roderick's clean-cut bow and arrow, barely aiming, shot an arrow.

The running orcs were roaring with their heads up, their huge fangs closing open like two doors. It was hit by an arrow in the face and leg, but the damage simply couldn't stop it.

An unremarkable arrow hit the left chest accurately.

"Bang."

A small popping sound sounded in his chest, and the orc ran a few more steps by inertia, smelling a smell of roasted meat, and then a violent burning sensation came from his chest.

This is more painful than being pierced by an arrow.

Its straight-line thinking and stubborn personality made it want to keep running, but in the end, it couldn't beat its physical instincts, and it slowed down slowly, and finally clutched its chest and fell to its knees.

Colin said to Anne next to her, "Remember where that orc is. ”

"Hmm." Anne seems to have known what to do for a long time.

Roderick looked at the scene in front of him in surprise, and immediately understood that it was the effect of the arrow.

"My lord, this is ......"

Without waiting for him to ask, Colin drew another arrow.

"Try this again."

"Yes."

Roderick could only hold back his doubts and take the arrow.

This time, he kept an eye on the arrow, and when he set up the arrow, he carefully observed the whole arrow.

That's right, it's the birch arrows that have been used all along.

It is made by the inhabitants of Twilight City, after cutting the birch wood on the hill outside the city, soaking it, polishing it, planting it, repairing it, and finally pressing the arrowhead that has been forged by the city's blacksmith for several hours.

For so many years, the Twilight Fortress has been largely guarded by this humble arrow.

Regardless of the weight or feel, Roderick is all too familiar.

There can be no mistake.

Apart from...... Something seems to be drawn on it......

"Captain Roderick?"

"Yes, sir."

After noticing that he was in a daze, Roderick did not continue to check, and immediately selected a target and released the arrow.

This time the effect was slightly different from the previous arrow, the power of the blast was not so great, although the orc who was hit noticed the discomfort, but after rubbing the wound with his hand, he continued to run forward, but after the explosion, a large number of sparks were scattered.

It's just that these sparks, which are less than the size of soybeans, have limited damage, and they can only be scalded at most after touching the surrounding orcs.

With the numb nerves of the orcs, they didn't care at all.

Colin turned to Anne and said, "Record the radius of the sputter at that range, visually measure the number of Mars, estimate the effect, and then also note the last position of that orc." ”

Anne nodded immediately, then lowered her head and wrote quickly on the notebook in her hand.

Roderick listened to the lord's words and was a little dazed for a while.

I wanted to ask after they finished talking.

As a result, as soon as Colin finished explaining to Anne, he immediately pulled out another arrow from the quiver next to him.

"Captain Roderick, try this again, this time, I need you to aim for their faces or nakedness."

Roderick: "......"

……

This time the battle was still not too much of a surprise. Although the number of orcs has increased considerably, it is still within the expected range of the defenders of the fortress.

When the last of the orcs were completely gone, Colin looked at the devastated battlefield, the stench of blood in the air making him a little uncomfortable.

"Captain Roderick, I need to bring back all the orcs who were just hit, dead or alive." As Colin spoke, he pointed to Anne and the seven or eight students beside him, and said, "They will help you point out the location." ”

"Yes, sir."

After Colin returned to the castle.

Roderick shouted, "A small team, follow me down the wall." ”

……

Colin sat in a soft chair behind his desk, half-leaning over to read the stack of materials in his hand.

Anne sat across from her, and with her head bowed, she stroked the manuscript and said:

"A total of 19 experimental data, of which 6 test subjects died on the spot, 5 died two hours later, and 8 are currently alive, but according to Captain Roderick's estimate, only one orc will survive at most by tomorrow."

"Annie, the way you've put together your data is pretty good." Colin exclaimed.

"I learned from your 'Ryegrass Germ Anatomy Analysis Data'."

"Well, your writing format is better than mine."

"Is that an advantage?" Anne laughed.

"Of course, it is said that the graduation thesis of the Blue Alliance Advanced Magic Academy is written on the paper."

"The Western Continent, ......," Anne suddenly sighed.

She was a studious person herself, and since she had read Colin's "Fundamentals of Elements and Magic", she felt that most of her previous year at the academy had been wasted.

Of course, this is not a problem of the Academy, but the preconceived notion of the entire wizarding world - only magicians are suitable for research, and magic apprentices only need to learn basic magic inscriptions and other crafts - which is roughly equivalent to a craftsman in magic. Although some purely theoretical things are also taught, in the end it is still in the service of the former.

If everyone thinks so, there is nothing wrong with it, after all, the demand for "magic craftsmen" is also very large, and the Youjin Chamber of Commerce has a headache all day long and lacks excellent magic apprentices.

However, it is an embarrassing fact that most of the magic apprentices who are able to enter the academy go to the official magicians, and during the apprenticeship they either spend their days or practice building spell models all day in preparation for awakening, and few are willing to calm down and learn the elemental theories that are not destined to be used.

This phenomenon is not unique to Tulum, but the pressure to survive in the Western Continent is less, so magicians are willing to put more effort into elemental research, which also creates a relatively strong academic atmosphere.

After Anne's thinking changed, it was reasonable to yearn for the Western Continent.

"According to the data comparison, the effect of No. 2, No. 4, No. 9, and No. 15 magic patterns should be the best, but there is still room for improvement." Colin concluded.

"Yes." Anne agreed.

"Then come one by one, try No. 2 first, 87 people, 10,000 arrows, can you catch up in two days?" Colin asked.

"At present, the students are not very proficient, and it takes about 5 minutes to engrave an arrow, let me do the math...... It should be fine. Anne said.