《Re: Bow》 Prologue A huge thanks to Kayranable who proofread and edited this it makes the whole thing better ______________________________________________________________________________________________ "AH" quickly sitting up I look around while trying to regain control of my breathing and see my room " A nightmare whew man that was scary it felt so realistic too" getting up from my pile of furs on wobbly legs with my, I leave my room and head to the front of the withering hovel; my parents built all those years ago. As I get closer to the front room I hear the sounds of someone moving about, ''at least someone¡¯s here''. " Hey mom, dad is there anything to eat from yesterday i''m starv... eh". I blanked out sitting on one of the makeshift chairs was not my mother or father but a beautiful tall pale blue coloured woman who instantly perks up at the sight of me. "Oh you¡¯re up already that''s good I can¡¯t wait to get started we don''t need to bother with formalities I know all about you. Horick, 18 years old only son of Bert and Susanna Korp, Lived in isolation from the world and have been taught to be a hunter even since you were able to understand and can even make your own amazing bows. Would you like to add anything."[Blue lady] During her speech I managed to snap out of my daze but got sent right into another trying to understand how she knows I exist let alone so much about me but I managed to grab a hold of the conversation "Just give me a second to get my head around this, First, who are you? Second how do you know about me? and finally what do you want?" She hesitated for a few seconds before responding "Ah sorry I got so caught up in meeting you I forgot to explain. First off my name is Skaei and you might already be aware that I am a goddess. Lastly now that you died I can finally interact with you I am going to make a deal with you. See i''m going to send you to anoth...[Skaei] "WAIT!" my head couldn''t keep up with everything she says that she¡¯s a goddess ok fine but i''m dead?... how, I can¡¯t be dead, I''m here right now "Er¡­ sorry to say but I can¡¯t believe you when you say that I¡¯m dead." Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. A look of sadness with a slight hint of pity appeared on her face. "Er¡­ I apologise I assumed you remembered that 16 hours ago in your time you died, while hunting a wolf you got distracted by movement in the cave next to you which allowed the wolf to get close enough to attack causing you to lose your balance resulting in you and the wolf falling off the ledge of the mountain to your death."[Skaei] ''No, no, no, no, no if what she said is true then that wasn''t a nightmare that was true I''m dead¡­ I¡­ I''m really dead.'' I made a dash to the door and opened it I don''t care where I went, I just needed to leave. As soon as I opened the door I froze. What was on the other side wasn''t a small grassy field but a frozen wasteland on the top of a mountain there was no where to go to get away from this. I heard Skaei moving behind me as I turn to look at her. "Time is running out and while I wish I could have talked to you more we can''t so instead I''ll give you a quick run down, you¡¯re going to be in a different world however not as a human or another living being. I decided you would be best suited to be a bow I could make you an animal but the chances of you integrating with people and not being killed was low. But I didn''t remove all your options, you get to make yourself through many different bow making techniques or bow-smithing as it¡¯s referred to in that world. You''ll also be able to choose the materials you can even have a spirit form although until you get stronger it will have to stay in animal form but you can still semi interact with the world in the spirit form and the final thing is you can get abilities that you can level up and improve, that''s all our time up if you do something significant I may be able to talk with you again but until then goodbye. [Skaei] And with that i went from being in a replica of my home to a completely new area. _________________________________________________________________________ so that''s the prologue please tell me how to improve and what you think ill try and have another chapter out by tomorrow at least also tell me any mistakes you see. c ya Chapter 1: Turning myself into a weapon… literally Hey guys the new chapter is here along with the cover art Kayranable did if you haven''t seen it i suggest you check it out it''s awesome again a big thanks to him for proofreading and editing the chapter again __________________________________________________________________________________________ My new surroundings were vastly different from before instead of being in a run down hovel I was standing in a cozy single floor lumber house in the middle of a grassy plains. The inside was was amazing on one wall there was rows of books which after a quick look through were all about techniques of how to make all different kinds of bows and arrows, there were even ones about enchanting. While on the other wall was a large collection containing bows and arrows of all different shapes and sizes with a description on each one about their strengths, weaknesses and which race made them. There was a strange looking one that had an odd looking method of firing with a plaque stating ¡®Dwarven Crossbow¡¯ whatever a dwarf is I assume it''s one of the more intelligent races on this new world. It states this weapon has a lot of strength and range but lacks the mobility and swiftness of the other bows and then there was an elven bow which doesn¡¯t have as much strength but boasts having far more accuracy than most of the other types of bows and the barbed arrow for causing increased internal damage and bleeding and being more difficult to remove, Bodkin arrowheads for armor piercing and broadhead arrows which carry more weight dealing more damage on impact. The front of the house seems to be the place where I would be adding my enchantments to my body while the back seems to be the place I will be making said body. It has excellent tools in perfect condition to aid me in the process and when I get closer I could see a list appears telling me all the materials I would be allowed to use ranging from the common material of Oak to the legendary rank material branch of Yggdrasil. After getting familiar with my surroundings I decide to start researching all the different techniques used by the world to create bows along with getting to know all the strengths, weaknesses and the enchantments I can have while also reading up on the culture and history of this new world. ------------------------------- Time jump three weeks The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.------------------------------- ¡°Phew¡±, having spent all that time non stop reading and examining I think it''s time i start getting to work on tinkering my body. To begin with i decided to use a branch of Yggdrasil I was a bit skeptical at first however seeing as the other materials are all inferior I decided I might as well, I¡¯m also using the silk of a Dragon Spider since that will give the most power and durability while still having good enough accuracy to hit something a couple hundred meters away. Shortly after I started to enchant myself however I only gave myself a few enhancements since apparently I can return here to add or change the enchantments or access the knowledge I won''t be able to go back to the workshop after creating my body that''s something I found out during my time researching. The enchantments I used were: Arrow creation; this allows me to create arrows from nothing using mana, The faster I consume mana the faster I can create the arrow, Basic elemental arrows; this allows me to change the properties of the arrow to one of the 4 basic elements. I can do: Wind; which makes the arrow travel faster and further, Fire; this causes the arrow to explode on impact spreading flames afterwards and also thaw ice, Earth; this makes the arrow heavier and have more stopping power including knockback at the expense of range and Water; this removes the resistance the usual arrow gets when travelling through water causing it to act as though it was in air. For the 3rd and final enchantment I gave myself the ability to communicate telepathically to who ever I choose to be bound too. And with this I allow myself to fall into the world I will now call home, at least I was until I encountered 3 mounted animal heads before I could. ------------------------------------------------------- The abilities will go under enchantments so he can create arrows from nothing even though it''s an ability not enchantment even if he''s the only one in existence who can do it it''s still going to be considered an enchantment ------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2: Three choices Hello we are finally after hours of work and distractions i just wanna say sorry to start with the poll didn''t have everything i forgot a bit about what each does but i doubt it would really change the lead Direwolves had. Anyway this is the chapter its a long one and i will always try to make at least one chapter a day btw __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Placed before me were the mounted heads of three different animals on the left was the larger than normal golden head of a Direwolf, in the middle there was a head of a Red furred saber tooth lion and in the right was the head of a sky blue stag with some oversized white antlers. Each head turned and followed me as I made my way to the wolf head, as soon as got within range I lost control of my limbs and watched as my hands moved against my will and placed themselves on top of the wolf, at which point I lost consciousness. Upon waking up I find myself lying in a shallow cave surrounded by wolves, this causes me to remeber to my death and I stumbled to the floor, quickly getting back up and moving to the back of the cave I get into a defensive position and attempt to use my arms as a shield, as I raise my arms I find myself off balance and yet again the floor is rapidly getting closer to my face. I recover quickly then look down to see that what I believed would be my hands are actually huge golden paws, looking at the rest of myself I discovered I¡¯ve transformed into a wolf, a huge Golden furred Direwolf to be exact. As I started moving about I noticed there wasn''t any problems operating my body it was like I¡¯ve been a wolf my whole life I could control it so well as I¡¯m playing around in this body I see all the other Direwolves get up and start leaving the cave deciding I¡¯d rather stick with the pack rather than standing around chasing my tail I follow them. Along the way more and more Direwolves join the group as we head in the direction of a medium sized village. Nearing the village the rest of the wolves start to circle the village whilst staying under the cover of the forest. Instinctively I crouch down and start moving forward with others until the the howl of the pack leader signals and every Direwolf charges in. Surprisingly even I dart towards the direction of the village and rip through the lumber walls. Hundreds of us tear through what used to be a calm peaceful village that now is a battlefield with the howls of Direwolves and screams of villagers with the blood of both flowing down the barley cobbled streets and sinking into the mud. As I followed my fellow pack mates into the carnage I noticed I didn''t feel what I expected to feel I always thought when I killed another human I¡¯d feel disgusted or horrified but it¡¯s just the same as killing any of the other animals but a lot closer and with less clothes. As I was tearing into the throat of another victim I felt immense pain in my right side causing me to collapse turning my head I see a man dressed in metal armour holding the shaft of a pike that''s lodged deep into my chest as it gets more difficult to breath and almost impossible to move I manage to keep my eyes open just long enough to see one of the Direwolves leap onto his back and close its jaws over his head. Opening my eyes I find myself back in the white room with the three mounted animal heads except this time there is a plaque under the wolf head reading ¡°If you can¡¯t bring it down with one send another hundred. --- You will be able to form and fire arrows faster at the cost of some some damage.¡± As I try placing my hands on the wolf head again I find I can''t put my hands closer than a foot away from the head and instead I lose control of my body again and it starts heading towards the Sabertooth Lion¡¯s head I assume what¡¯s going to happen is similar to the wolf, so I let it take me and place my hands on the Lion¡¯s head I feel myself losing my conscience again. Waking up this time I find myself alone on top of a mountain again with complete control of my body, as I breathe in I sense many different animals indicated by different colours but the only one in the direction i¡¯m facing looks to be a large bear i¡¯d guess the colours and animals are all representations of their scents believing I was facing this way for a purpose I start to follow the trail leading me to the bear. After a few days of travelling I finally find the cave where the bear resides, I let out a roar to indicate a challenge to the bear, it takes a minute or two but finally I hear a response, a roar much louder and deeper than mine blast out from the cave following shortly after by what I believe I saw in a book was called a ¡®Gaia Bear¡¯ it was at least half a size larger than me, it has a thick looking hide and black grizzled fur, we both stare at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. After a while I decide to make the first move, I was the one who hunted it I shouldn¡¯t let it control the situation. Bravely charging forward I aim to get either under the bear, to get its neck or behind it, so I can jump on its back. However the bear anticipated my moves and didn¡¯t try to rear up to attack me. When I tried to get behind it moved quickly keeping its body facing me, seeing this strategy isn¡¯t going to work i go head on and jump onto its head and aim for the nape of its neck, I manage to claw its back and tear a few chunks out of it before it reared up and grabbed me before slamming me back into the ground disorientating me but I managed to get my bearings just in time to see it falling back down trying to stomp on me. I swiftly rolled out of the way and shook myself a few times as i circled the bear trying to clear my head; it was not enough the bear took its chance and charged me managing to grab me with its paws while attempting to bite my midsection. Feeling it would end badly for me if I did nothing i started frantically biting and clawing at whatever I could. Eventually it let me go but not before mauling my lower right section and causing me to limp. The wound was not fatal however would most likely kill me off soon. As I look towards it I see from the frantic attacks I made they seemed to have worn out the bear and it seemed it hoped that it caused enough damage to stop me and was attempting to run away. Even though it caused huge damage to me that I could barely move I wanted to bring it down with me using all of the remaining strength I could muster. I charged and leapt up onto its back and used my fangs to tear through its windpipe and my jaws shattered its spine I clambered off it and layed down just out of its reach as we watched each other¡¯s life fade away and the world fade to black. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Sitting up again in the room I look towards the mounted lion which has a plaque reading ¡°Sometimes you¡¯re alone and that''s fine as long as you have the strength to back yourself up. --- Increased force and damage at the cost of speed and range.¡° Understanding what¡¯s going on I head straight to the mounted stag head, place my hands on it and let fate take hold of me. Raising myself up and looking around I see I¡¯m in a quiet forest with no real indicator on what to do yet. I hope it¡¯s like the wolf and I just need to wait. With that in mind I start wandering around and eat some leaves this lasted a hour or two until I hear footsteps, they were not close but they were also not human but there were a lot of them and they are heading in my direction while I¡¯d rather be safe I¡¯d also not like to leave the current area so I slowly start walking in the opposite direction of the running while observing my surroundings this goes on until I hear a wolf¡¯s howl coming from behind me which set me off sprinting away from them faster than a stag should be able to move. After a little observation I find that I am infact going faster than an average stag can with each stride I cover multiple meters in an instant. Suddenly I realised I was about to ram into a tree, I couldn¡¯t dodge in time so I braced myself for impact only to find my antlers blasted the tree apart on contact. It was a joyful and surprisingly pain free event but I didn¡¯t have time to stop and party the wolves were starting to catch up it seems even at the speed I was running they are still a bit faster not only that but I am running out of land I see glimpses through the trees of a sheer drop down the gorge, the wolves are close I see them through the trees and they¡¯re not normal wolves while they have brown fur at the front of their bodies, everything past the midway point are leaves the colour of autumn and they are constantly trying to catch my legs. Just before the last wolf¡¯s attempted attack we burst out of the trees and are now heading up to the ledge. Enraged, the wolves have doubled their efforts to catch me it seems they understand what happens once we reach the edge and they don¡¯t like it much. They don¡¯t have enough ground or time needed to catch me. I reached the edge and leaped hoping to make it to the other side of the gorge which I estimate is one hundred and fifty to two hundred meters away some of the wolves attempt the jump as well hoping to grab me but they fall long before they reach me. I slowly descend to the other side of the gorge I see the terrain is rugged and will not be simple to land. As I land I can¡¯t get the necessary foothold, nor can I slow down and with that I trip, roll across the ground breaking my legs before slamming my back into a tree which sadly snapped my back instead of decimating the tree like I hoped. The worst part was I didn¡¯t just die, I felt no pain and only had a small discomfort when breathing but I could tell I was going to die, the amount of blood pooling around me tells me so; unless it¡¯s not my blood, but I know it is, I see it pouring out of my body and after what felt like hours the world blurred and faded away. Opening my eyes for what I believe to be the last time in this room I look at the plaque of the stag ¡°Grace is as powerful and sharp as any weapon. --- Increased range and accuracy at the cost of reload and fire speed, will also require those who wield you to have more strength in order to use you properly.¡± Looking at the mounted heads I guess I have to make a choice which after consideration I go for the Direwolf while Lion and Stag are good I assume I and or whoever wields me or is bound to me will be fighting against numbers more often than a one on one. From the materials i used I already have good power and range anyway. With that I go place my hand on the Direwolf¡¯s head a second time and after a sudden flash of light I find myself in what looks to be a temple to the gods lying on an altar with many other armour, weapons and other items in the centre. Chapter 3: Talia Elydark New chapter this one was fun to make and also a nightmare haha anyway we completed it so here ya go ____________________________________________________________________________ Growing up wasn¡¯t easy. I never really fit in with my family I¡®ve always been adventurous and loved to climb and move around my mother taught me how to hunt and use a bow. However the rest of my relatives aren¡¯t the same. My father is a noble, living in the capital and while he tries his best to be a dad we can¡¯t see eye to eye. He¡¯s too traditional and he constantly says I should act more like a noble, like my older brother and sisters, of which I have two sisters one one brother. My oldest sister hailed as blessed by the gods and went to become a priestess; my second older sister acts entitled, everyone that''s not either family or nobility are treated as if they all her personal slave. Due to my behaviour she also disrespects me a lot, she won¡¯t go too far because we are still family but it¡¯s still hurtful. My older brother is meant to inherit our father¡¯s business and legacy. I have two younger siblings as well. A younger brother and sister they are both a bit adventurous like me; my younger sister more so. She loves hearing stories from mother about great adventurers, while my younger brother has dreams of being a knight. Recently my father has been trying to restrict me from going out to hunt, even threatening to disown me if I keep going. The only reason he hasn¡¯t already is because mother keeps talking him out of it. She was a hunter before father and her met, after a few years they eventually got married. Therefore she doesn¡¯t hunt as much and thus passed down her hunting gear to me. Currently our whole family is travelling to a temple near the village mother came from. It was recently reported that the village was burned down by bandits so all of us along with a good number or guards that are travelling to the temple visit the village to pay respects to the dead. We have been travelling for about two weeks and we¡¯re finally entering the the village borders, from here we get down from the carriages and walk through the village looking at all the ruined houses, wondering how many people died or got kidnapped, on my way towards the temple. Leaving most of the guards outside the rest of us go in. Looking around inside I see the statues of our gods there¡¯s: Burtok; The god of animals and hunting who is seen as a pack of many different animals, Suran; who is represented as a giant dryad is the Goddess of nature and life, Coter; God of water and death is shown to have the upper body of a man and the lower of a giant sea serpent, Genon; the first life is seen as a figure of light and darkness is shown feature and gender-less and has one side painted white with the other painted black and finally Letri; the Goddess of the earth and prosperity is shown as a large Fairy. Walking past the monuments to our deities we head towards Coter¡¯s alter to leave offerings as tribute to letting the dead pass on, we hear movement from behind. ¡°Looks like you were right Jack they did come here to leave stuff for their damned gods.¡± [Skinny Human Bandit] A skinny human chuckled as he walked out from behind one of the altars followed by another smaller fatter human and a dwarf with more humans coming out from behind the other altars blocking our exit forcing us towards the altar of Burtok. ¡°Heh Heh¡­ See boss I told you they¡¯d come and pay respects, it was just a matter of time.¡±[Fat Human Bandit] ¡°Quit yer yappin¡¯ let¡¯s hurry up and get ¡®em so we can get outa here.¡±[Dwarf Bandit] ¡°He¡¯s right hurry and get them people the faster you go the faster we can sell them and go to the tavern.¡±[Muscular Bandit Boss 1] With that said all the bandits slowly started moving forward. Quickly looking around for some way to escape I spot a bow with a Direwolf head above its grip laying down on the altar. I dash towards it and grab it only to collapse in pain. My mother who sees me quickly runs over to check what¡¯s wrong, she attempts to pull the bow from my hands but is unable to. When she releases my arm a black tattoo appears on my hand and I can only watch in horror as it starts to spiral up my arm behind my back and over my shoulder before morphing into a Direwolf¡¯s head. As I blink through teary eyes and look around I see most of the guards who came in with us are dead, while those on the outside are being held back. My eldest brother is lying on the floor with a sword through his chest, while mother and father try to stand between the bandits and us. As I start to stand up I hear another voice ¡°Hello¡­ Can you hear me? Helllooooooo!¡±[Unknown Voice] This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Looking around to see who said something, I see no one else reacting to it, I quickly shout. ¡°Where are you?¡± Now everyone is looking at me. Weird even the bandits have stopped attacking, just to stare at me. ¡°Hey boss I think she¡¯s gone crazy.¡± [Fat Human Bandit] ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter she probably wouldn¡¯t stay sane in the place we¡¯d be selling her too anyway.¡± [Bandit Boss] My family seems to surprised too talk, maybe I am just hearing things. ¡°You¡¯re not going insane and don¡¯t talk out loud I¡¯m in your head just shoot at the bad guys.¡± [Voice In My Head] ¡°Shoot at them!? I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve noticed but I don¡¯t have any arrow¡¯s.¡± ¡°Sure you do. Just pull back on the string. The bow will make the arrow.¡± [Voice In My Head] Deciding to believe what the unknown voice says I pull back the string since the worst that can happen is nothing, and people think I¡¯m crazy again, but in contrary to what I think the bow successfully makes an arrow, blue veins appear on the bow and pulsate before an arrow appears, and the veins fade away, noticing the look of shock on their faces I decide not to waste this chance, fire the arrow it streaks through the air before lodging itself in the Skinny Bandit¡¯s neck. After which I quickly drew the string again which after seeing this, caused everyone to snap out of the stupor and start attacking each other again. I managed to shoot numerous arrows and each time I watched as the blue veins appeared and pulsated. The bandits were quickly running out of help I guessed that their plan was to grab us and use us as hostages to escape without losing many of their own. Suddenly I¡¯m grabbed from behind and a knife placed at my throat. ¡°STOP!¡± [Unknown Female Bandit] ¡°Clear a path and let me leave or I¡¯ll kill her.¡± [Female Bandit] ¡°Well done Ruby, with this we ca¡­¡± [Bandit Boss] ¡°SHUT UP! I¡¯m leaving the rest of you can stay here and die for all I care.¡± [Female Bandit] Suddenly everyone drops their weapons and is looking at us as if we were monsters. Some bandits even started slowly backing away ¡°Wh-What the hell are you guys looking at?¡± [Ruby] ¡°Ruby be quiet and slowly come towards us. Whatever you do, don¡¯t look behind you.¡±[Bandit Boss] ¡°What do you mean don¡¯t look behi¡­ AAAAAHHHHHHH!¡± [Ruby] Being pushed forward I look behind me to see what¡¯s wrong, when I see a huge golden Direwolf with her halfway inside its mouth flailing and almost bitten in half looking forwards almost all the bandits are running away while the guards are ushering the rest of my family out as well. While all I could do was watch in horror as the Direwolf threw the body of the bandit to the side and started walking towards me; I closed my eyes and waited for death but nothing happened. After about 20 seconds of having my eyes closed I opened them to see the Direwolf¡¯s face directly in front of mine just as I was about to back away the wolf started to go transparent before being pulled into the bow I still had gripped tightly in my hand. Walking out from the temple my family rush to me asking if I¡¯m ok and what happened with the Direwolf. I told them I was fine and that it ran off with the body of the bandit, After got some distance from everyone I tried talking to the person in my head again.¡± Hey thanks for helping me. Where are you really anyway¡± ¡°Me you¡¯re holding me, I¡¯m the bow.¡± [Talking Bow] ¡°WHAT!?¡± and now people are looking at me like I¡¯m crazy again.¡±