The Academy's Time Looper-Chapter 59: Carving

Letting out a dry cough, Athen immediately turned back around and picked up his crossbow, attempting to hide his face.

Not even trying to aim at the target’s center, he clicked the trigger and took a glance backward.

Behind him, Alice had picked up a thin, silver rapier and was now walking towards the dummy training area, which was right next to the targets he and Alice were shooting at.

*WHOOSH*

After taking a couple of glances backward, Athen simply shook his head before refocusing on his crossbow training.

He had come here to train.

...

...

...

Unlike the other two girls in the room, whose faces were drenched with sweat, Athen was completely dry as he put down his crossbow.

After all, he only had to click a trigger.

Glancing out the windows of the hall, Athen was surprised to see the sky completely dark, with some dazzling stars and a waxing crescent moon.

Staring at the target, which he had already replaced three times, Athen smiled before opening his briefcase and putting the crossbow inside.

His accuracy had visibly improved, with his arrows now much closer to the center of the target than before.

Picking up his briefcase, Athen glanced to his right where Alice was.

She had a towel wrapped around her neck, and her long-black hair had been tied into a ponytail.

The blue color surrounding her right arm had diminished, and now only a faint light-blue outline was visible.

Alice seemed to be resting as she was leaning against a nearby wall while drinking a bottle of water.

After the first few minutes, she had stopped copying him and begun training seriously, which was a sight to see for Athen.

In the time it took Athen to reload one arrow into his crossbow, she had fired over three, each more powerful and accurate than his single arrow as well.

Taking a glance to his left, Athen spotted Delphi, who had dropped her rapier onto the floor.

With both her shoes glowing blue, she seemed to be training her footwork as she stood in front of an agility ladder that was laid out on the floor.

Standing at the base of the ladder, she leaned downwards before rapidly placing her right foot in the ladder’s first square.

Mere moments later, her left leg followed, landing right beside her right foot in the first square.

With any hesitation, Delphi would then shift her momentum as her left leg, this time, would advance in the second square first.

Then, she would repeat the entire process until she reached the end of the 15-foot ladder.

Though the process would be easy if you were walking through it, Delphi was doing it with such an incredible speed that it took Athen a couple of minutes of watching to finally realize she was alternating her first foot with each square.

If he had to compare, Athen would still say Kai was faster, as he could barely keep up with his feet; however, Delphi’s footwork and fluidity in her movements completely outmatched Kai’s.

Unnoticed by the two girls, Athen grabbed a water bottle and walked towards the exit of the training hall.

According to the principal, nothing would be brought with you when you are transferred to the artificial environment.

So, then, one might question why Athen was training with a crossbow.

What were the odds he was going to find a crossbow in the artificial environment?

However, Athen’s reasoning was quite simple.

He was going to make a crossbow... with the materials he found in the artificial environment.

All those hours he had spent examining the crossbow’s machinery and its strings hadn’t been for nothing.

He would need some wood for the body, a flexible branch for the string, bark for reinforcement, something sharp to carve with, and some vines to connect the bow together.

The arrows would just be sticks that he sharpened.

And Athen was sure he could find all those things in an artificial environment.

Pushing open the glass doors of the hall, Athen strolled through the brightly lit path back to the dorm.

Streetlights were positioned far too close to each other, making it seem like it was day and not night.

However, just as the massive dorm building came into sight, Athen suddenly veered off the path.

Wandering to the right and into a forest, he looked around for a few seconds before sitting down on the ground.

It was time to test his confidence.

Setting an internal timer, Athen took a couple of deep breaths and then immediately jumped upward.

Not skipping a beat, he dashed toward the nearest tree, finding a nearby rock on the way.

Raising the rock as high as he could, Athen thrust his arm forward, bashing the side of the rock against the hard tree.

*BANG*

*BANG*

Then, for the next few minutes, he repeated that motion over and over again until the side of the rock had finally turned into a sharp edge.

Raising his hand one last time, Athen threw his hand forward; however, this time, his rock stabbed into the tree instead of simply bouncing off.

Mustering all the strength he could, Athen pushed the embedded rock downwards, carving out a piece of bark from the tree.

After making a circle in the tree with the sharp rock, Athen rapidly pulled it toward him, unembedding it from the tree.

And, alongside the rock, a circle-shaped piece of bark dropped to the floor, leaving part of the tree in front of him naked.

Panting, Athen wiped the sweat that had formed on his face before immediately...jumping up and hugging the tree.

With his arms wrapped around the tree, he slowly scaled it until, finally, his hand could reach the lowest branch.

Then, with his left arm still wrapped around the tree, Athen reached his right arm up and grasped the branch.

Similar to doing a one-arm pull-up, Athen raised himself upward with his right hand until his entire body was on top of the branch.