He strolled around like that until about midnight. Once drowsiness started creeping in, Li Wei jogged a bit to loosen up his limbs, confird everything felt fine, and then headed to the storeroom to retrieve the two-star quality composite bow that was rightfully his.
The mont he picked it up — even before pulling it from the bow case — he knew it was a treasure. It was noticeably heavier than any of the recurve bows Penny had previously crafted, which ant the draw weight was undoubtedly greater.
Fortunately, his Strength had reached 13 points. Otherwise, he'd have genuinely worried about being unable to unleash this composite bow's full potential.
Tempering his excitent, Li Wei opened the bow case and slowly drew the composite bow out.
The instant he gripped it, he could see both his Two-Star Farr Card and Two-Star Hunter Card flicker as if stimulated, flashing briefly before vanishing.
At the sa ti, the bow's attributes appeared before him.
That's right — actual attributes. The recurve bows Penny had made him before didn't have a single stat to their na.
[Na: Imitation Han Military Composite Bow]
[Quality: Two-Star]
[Materials: Bear sinew, ox sinew, mulberry wood core, ox horn]
[Trait: When a critical hit strikes a vital point, the raging remnant spirit of the black bear goes on a killing spree — damage 100%. Against lightly armored targets, 50% armor penetration chance.]
[Attributes: Accuracy 10%, Rate of Fire 10%, Effective Range 10%]
[Miscellaneous: Requires careful daily maintenance. Exercise caution in rain or snow. Prohibited from use when temperature approaches minus twenty degrees Celsius.]
[Note: The data system doesn't give you carte blanche to misuse things recklessly. Revere the logic of facts. Don't mistake reality for a ga.]
—
"What a treasure!"
Li Wei was overjoyed. Accuracy 10%, combined with his Two-Star Hunter's professional talent, effectively ant Accuracy 50%. Not bad at all.
Fired up, he hurried back to camp, grabbed a torch, dragged out the straw-man target, and carried it beyond the walls. He set the target roughly sixty ters out and planted the torch as a light source.
Back at the wall, he strung the bow and drew it slowly several tis, feeling the resistance build. This had to be at least sixty pounds of draw weight.
Then he nocked an arrow, took a deep breath, waited for his breathing to steady, drew the bow to near full moon, sighted for one brief second, and released.
The entire process was clean — no wasted movent, no great commotion. Like an evening breeze drifting past, the arrow's fading whisper through the air carried an elegance and ease.
Over sixty ters away, a faint thud seed to echo back. Li Wei unstrung the bow, slipped it into its case, calm and unhurried.
No need for a second shot. One arrow on target was enough.
With a 50% accuracy bonus, if he couldn't hit a stationary target at sixty ters every single ti, then the past half year of grueling practice would have been for nothing.
But just now, he hadn't even drawn the composite bow to full strength — roughly eighty percent of its power at most. And with his 13 Strength points, the pull hadn't felt particularly taxing.
At full draw, he could certainly shoot farther, and it probably still wouldn't be too strenuous. Rapid-fire volleys, though, would definitely drain more Stamina.
So it ca down to the situation.
When he had ample observation space and aiming ti — hunting scenarios, precision kills — he could unleash the bow's full power.
Li Wei figured he could land a lethal shot from eighty ters out.
But in the chaos of a dynamic battlefield, against unarmored targets, sixty percent draw strength would be more than sufficient.
Against targets wearing iron-studded leather armor, though, he'd need every ounce of the bow's power — maybe even specialized armor-piercing arrows.
As for fully iron-armored targets...
Well, that was getting ahead of himself.
He retrieved the target and headed back to his room to sleep. Starting tomorrow, the days of hard labor would begin. He wouldn't even get a chance to practice archery.
The next morning, Li Wei was the last one up. The sun was already high in the sky.
Not a soul in the room.
Breakfast had gone cold.
Li Wei sighed. After washing up, he ate alone. The food was a bit bland — too little salt. Were they running out?
Unfortunately, this month's main task didn't include buying salt.
After breakfast, Li Wei stored his two-star composite bow carefully in his room and headed out with just a recurve bow, five bodkin arrows, a wooden spear, his refined steel dagger at his side, and leather armor and boots on his back.
The quarry environnt wasn't exactly friendly — no way was he risking his precious composite bow there.
He only brought the weapons out of habit — always better to be prepared.
Last autumn, he'd raided a bandit camp and let three bandits escape. He didn't know whether Penny had told Thomas and the others about it.
And there was no telling whether the bandits might co back for revenge.
Better safe than sorry — especially since Thomas hadn't even assigned patrol or guard duties this month. The man was completely tunnel-visioned on his final sprint, oblivious to everything else.
Leaving the camp, Li Wei stopped first at the material yard to the south. There he picked up a chisel and a hamr — standard tools, already available. Penny had gotten up early to quench and sharpen the chisels.
There was also a wooden wheelbarrow. During winter, the family's core four had used sleds, which were quite convenient. But now that the snow had lted, the wheelbarrow was the real workhorse.
By this point, Penny, Fila, and Leon had already been at the quarry working for quite so ti.
Thomas and Margaret were in charge of stacking the stone wall.
Thomas handled the skilled masonry work while Margaret served as his assistant, and they were going at it full tilt. Margaret, her face still swollen like a pig's, was practically jogging as she worked — the desperate urgency of soone with a demon at their heels.
It made Li Wei wonder: was the so-called Chaotic Killing Battlefield really that terrifying?
Because only sothing that dire could explain why Thomas and Margaret were this frantic, this willing to take extre risks.
Mulling it over, Li Wei loaded up a wheelbarrow with quarrying tools and marched toward the quarry.
The quarry was about a kiloter from the material yard, and by now a well-worn path had been trampled into existence. Near the quarry, one steep section of the trail held a wooden raft along with seven or eight logs.
Apparently, this setup allowed stone to be transported down the slope using that thod.
It could shave off roughly three hundred ters of hauling distance.
That was actually quite decent — aning the wheelbarrow portion was less than seven hundred ters.
Last winter, the core four had relied on exactly this thod. Combined with sleds, it was how they'd stockpiled so much stone and listone — laying the crucial groundwork for this month's completion.
Yes, completion was practically guaranteed now.
So even though Li Wei was furious at Thomas, he didn't want to sabotage anything and create a lose-lose situation. Getting the stone wall built was genuinely good for the entire family.
What if another black bear wandered in and Li Wei wasn't around to catch it in ti, or didn't have the right conditions to fight? The whole family would be dead.
Out of habit, Li Wei scanned his surroundings. He even gazed into the distance, his mind automatically simulating scenarios — if a wild beast charged out, or if bandits attacked, where would he shoot from? It was a good habit to maintain.
When he crested the steep slope, he found Penny, Fila, and Leon had already been working for the better part of the morning.
It was currently around eight in the morning.
They'd been up since five, worked, gone back for breakfast, and returned. That kind of work ethic was sothing Li Wei couldn't match.
But so what? He'd already committed to quarrying just one unit per day.
—
In a flash, twenty-so days had passed.
During this ti, Li Wei had it relatively easy — aside from the gri.
The wheelbarrow made all the difference, saving enormous amounts of energy.
Add in the warming weather — not too hot, not too cold — and the quarrying conditions were worlds apart from the freezing hell of winter.
So much so that after finishing one unit of stone each day and wheeling it back, he still felt he had energy to spare.
He bumped it up to one and a half units per day.
Later, he gradually pushed it to two units, and still had reserves.
After all, grinding quarrying experience was addictive. And look at his physical condition — fit and strong, with the Bear Hunter title equipped, 13 Strength points, 170 Stamina, plus the white bread buff. A asly two units of stone? Child's play.
The others, though, were a different story.
They were barely hanging on, shuffling around like the walking dead.
Fila managed relatively well, quarrying only half a unit per day. But Penny and Leon were purely gutting it out.
Running on nothing but sheer willpower.
It was becoming clear that they wouldn't complete their monthly main tasks.
Ironically, Li Wei was the one most likely to finish his — and holy hell, what a twist that was!
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