My 3rd Return: Archercaster's Birth

"...One!"

My normal-magic arrow shot and instantly hit the target, even passing through it and disappearing behind.

The second phase began, three new targets appeared in the area and were spaced apart. I quickly pulled my bowstring and targeted the new targets one by one. All were on target, but my arrows were not as strong as the first one. Of course, these ones did not use a charge.

The next level began, the third phase. Two targets emerged from the floor and stood still. Two more appeared and shifted smoothly to the left and right in the distance. Two more emerged almost simultaneously but only for a few moments, both disappeared again, but reappeared at the exact same spot.

Timing, I just needed to match my time with theirs.

I shot two normal arrows without a charge alternately, then intended to launch my next attack. To my own surprise, the two targets that had been shot did not disappear and still remained there with a small wound.

"The higher the level phase, the greater the DMG that must be given for the target to disappear," said Ritta.

I should've known that from the beginning, but I didn't really do anything about it.

I repeated my aim at the two stationary targets and eliminated them from the area. Two normal shots were enough to bring them down, meaning I had to use a charging attack to take down a target in a single shot.

I'm doing it right now, then releasing it towards a target that I had calculated its respawn timing. As soon as this target reappeared, my arrow hit and took it down. While witnessing that, I had also finished charging another arrow and released it towards the next target.

Then the third phase ended, entering the fourth phase.

"That's enough, cancel this challenge and reset my parameters, Ritta," I commanded.

Although Ritta didn't quite understand the reason behind my request, she simply obeyed and did as I told her. "So this is the Diviner, the one said to disrupt the order within the game? Not so impressive," she mumbled.

"You're very wrong, girl. I just couldn't show it to you right away, but let's proceed."

"Daring to use a bow means senior has admitted to being an Archer. They possess agility in movement, rapid fire attacks, precision, and skills that are annoying and troublesome," Ritta continued her statement.

"Just in case you forget, but I am a mage." Supposedly, though.

"Okay, okay, I get it. So what kind of challenge do you want now?"

For the next experiment, I have already thought of something to do. "An arena battle against a boss, normalize their stats, maybe even neutral element," I said.

"The AI difficulty level?"

Ah, there's something like that too, I thought. "I want to say 'maximum,' but there's something I want to try first, so just normal," I answered.

Our surroundings change, and I find myself standing in the middle of a colosseum arena. Surrounding me are empty spectator seats except for one, where Ritta is sitting alone, tinkering with a floating window.

In this training ground, we can also adjust it so that I have unlimited HP and MP or make all skills usable without consuming MP, or even add certain stats to myself. But as you know, that's not my goal in doing this. I want to train and adapt with Versatile.

Ritta was almost finished with the settings. I handed over the boss monster to her discretion, and considering her personality, she might choose a boss I haven't seen or know about. No, wait, precisely because she's Ritta, she'll definitely—

Bathed in pixelated light, something massive suddenly spawned above the arena. I stood there, staring at it until the boss took its complete form with four legs. It roared, not like an elephant could roar, but I don't know what sound elephants make, ahem. Before me stood:

Jourmoutth Zazaza, Lv.350

"I remember choosing normal difficulty," I muttered, glancing at the culprit who smiled mischievously.

"Oh, sorry, senior. It seems I pressed the wrong button," she said, giggling softly.

Zazaza, or this mammoth, is a boss that holds memories with both me and Ritta. Its level should have been half of what it is now, but Ritta powered it up. I won't ask for more, because if a level 150 boss appeared, the battle would be over quickly, and I wouldn't find something important in my experiment.

As I began this training, I realized something. Versatile, although it falls under the category of abilities that require and consume MP, doesn't have a cooldown. When my MP runs out, Versatile will be turned off, but I can immediately use it again once my MP reaches the minimum activation threshold—of course, in this way, I will also lose Versatile mode instantly because I don't have any remaining MP to sustain it. So, I won't do that.

Then there's one more important and interesting thing...

I ran circles around Zazaza, its size large enough to almost swallow half of the arena, making the remaining space for me to maneuver narrower, but it didn't matter. I released and called upon Versatile. To be honest, using the long voice activation gradually bored me. While running, I pulled the string and cast Arrow Rain, and I kept on running.

This is the broken aspect of this bow.

I had cast a skill that, under normal circumstances, would require me to stay still and wait for the casting time to finish. But when I cast it through this bow of the sky dwellers, I could move. As long as I didn't release my grip on the string, the casting process would continue. And upon closer observation, moving while maintaining this stance consumed additional MP, which I could observe from where it was being consumed.

Enough of that. As Ritta started the simulation, I shot my arrow forward.

Without any pause, I resumed running, slightly distancing myself from the boss, bow ready. Firebolt was cast, four seconds passed, and I released this arrow. Zazaza winced as the fiery explosion struck its temple.