Chapter 60: Basic Archery and a Very Bad Evening

Night patrol shifts were almost a routine now.

Eren and Emily had split the evening schedule with the wolves covering deeper forest areas. Emily took the first half while Eren trained or handled village stuff. Then he took over when she came back.

But before his shift started, Eren had one thing to do.

He stood in the small yard behind their house with a bow in his hand and a wooden target Emily had carved from a dark pinewood stump. Their yard wasn’t big but it was private. No one could see him miss. And he missed a lot.

Archery was his worst skill by far. Not even a skill actually. He didn’t have a skill for it. Just embarrassing attempts that made Emily cover her mouth with her hand every time she watched.

The problem wasn’t strength or eyesight. Both were insane after his stat upgrades and in the past they were the problem, he knew it. But now a new problem named calibration showed up. He had to learn how to use his power in low levels to adjust it to this bow.

Like he was using a plastic bows parents buy to their kids and using it to hunt a agile street cat.

His body was too powerful for the bow. Every pull felt like barely touching the string but the arrow launched like a damn rocket. He either overshot or the arrow wobbled because his release was too tense. Doing this power calibration lowered his speed of learning actual shooting.

Too much of everything and not enough control isn’t good for archery. Who knew! Definitely not me…

But Emily kept saying ranged attacks would matter when winter came. Bigger monsters meant wider distances. And if something flew at them from above, punching wasn’t an option unless it came close enough to kiss him.

So here he was, missing a standing target wider than a door from thirty or so meters.

He nocked another arrow. Drew the string back. Breathed out slowly like Emily taught him. Aimed at the center of the stump.

Then Emily wrapped her arms around him from behind!

Her body pressed against his back and her chin rested on his shoulder. Her breath was warm on his neck and he felt her heartbeat against his spine as her big chest covered his entire back…

Eren’s focus shattered completely.

His body reacted before his brain could catch up. Every nerve lit up at the same time, a rush of heat and excitement and that specific kind of distraction where your lower brain takes over from your upper brain.

His fingers released the string on pure reflex.

The arrow flew.

It hit the dead center of the target with a solid thunk.

[Congratulations! You have learned Basic Archery

-Basic Archery (Passive) Level 1 – First Evolution League]

Eren stood there for three full seconds with Emily still attached to his back and the system notification floating in his vision.

“Did you just-” She was probably talking about his absurd hit on the target and didn’t notice the notification yet.

“I learned a skill. From getting scared by my wife.” He felt her body tremble slightly when he dropped the word “wife” again. It worked every single time with her.

Worth it…

He read the skill and it was just as nice as he expected it to be.

[Basic Archery – Passive Skill: The user gains permanent and natural affinity for bow mechanics. Increases the learning rate and effectiveness of all bow and arrow training]

Emily laughed with her face still buried in his shoulder. Then she listened to his explanation of the skill description and pulled back with a thoughtful expression.

“It’s a basic passive. Every weapon-focused class gets one in the beginning. I didn’t get it because my class is more about wind and movement than weapons but you get what I mean.”

She walked around to face him. “But learning it without a weapon class and so randomly like this is insane. This is supposed to be impossible! Your freedom to acquire any skill is going to become a godlike thing.”

“How?” He didn’t understand what she meant.

“If you have no class restrictions, then you will eventually learn everything. Combat skills, magic skills, crafting skills – there’s no limit.” Her voice sounded more excited than concerned now but she was right to think about it. This was a big deal.

But Eren got this kind of random skill only once before when he was poisoned by that fire slime. Two times total in almost a month. It didn’t look that op to him.

“I’ve been training with the bow for how long now and all I got was a basic passive? I don’t think this will be as overpowered as you-”

Emily cut his naive words. “In twenty days mister… you got two passive skills unrelated to your class. One of them was when you didn’t even have a class!” She stopped and hit him with that sweet smile where her head tilted slightly to the side. It was devastating every time and she knew it. “Don’t forget. You are a half-elf my silly husband.”

She whispered the last part on purpose as payback for his “wife” move earlier. And it worked. His lower body started protesting immediately.

Eren still didn’t understand what she meant for a few second, then a scene from a movie popped into his head. Aragorn standing in that forest with the sad Elven princess. The whole point of their tragedy was…

“ELVES LIVE LONGER!!!”

How could I forget the most insane part of elves!!

Emily kissed his cheek dangerously close to his lips and made his whole face burn. She’d learned exactly how to activate his neurons in the last week. It wasn’t fair in his book.

“Bingo. Even without any levels or Evon System, an average elf can live twice as long as humans. Sometimes triple if you have good genetics and a healthy diet. But levels make everything go insane.”

The weight of that hit him like a truck. He was a half-elf now. His lifespan wasn’t around 90 years anymore, which was the maximum not the usual norm.

Now, he could live hundreds of years. Maybe more with levels.

Hundreds of years of learning skills without class restrictions..

Hundreds of years of getting stronger….

“Emily. If I can learn any skill and I have centuries to do it…”

“Now you understand.” She looked proud that he finally connected the dots.

Before Eren could process how insanely broken his future might be, something interrupted their half-flirty conversation. His hand was already on Emily’s waist and they would’ve definitely gone inside the house naked in another minute.

But three voices cut through the quiet evening from the direction of the northern side of the village where the new barricades were made.

The patrol group. Mel, Nimbo and even Rabbu-i were sprinting toward their house. Screaming Emily’s name with the kind of panic that came from real danger.

“EMILY… HUNTER EMILY!”

“ATTACK! MONSTERS ARE COMING!”

“A LOT OF THEM!!!”

Emily’s face and her entire posture changed in less than a second. The warmth vanished like it was never there. Her hand found the katana grip from somewhere Eren couldn’t track and she turned from a pregnant wife to the apex hunter of this village in one breath.

“That’s impossible.” she said through her teeth. “Winter hasn’t even started.”

Eren focused to that side and now he could hear something else behind the horrified elf screams.

A low rumble echoed from the forest. Not thunder, hurricane or wind. Rumbling came from something alive and moving in numbers that made the ground vibrate under his bare feet.

Eren’s got goosebumps.

This was supposed to be a calm night. He was supposed to go to the dungeon with the wolves tonight. He was almost Level 30 and had been looking forward to the grind session all day.

He sighed, grabbed the kobold scimitars from beside the door and started running after Emily who was already jumping on the top of a neighbor roof.

He hated when things got hectic and destroyed his plans.

I just want to stay in the bed with my elf wife for a few days, damn it!

But the rumbling grew louder with every step. And whatever was coming, there were a lot of them.

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