The Astral soul system-Chapter 136: Prove

"So...you wanna do something else?"

Sable still had a few questions but before she could ask any,they suddenly heard footsteps.

Looking at where they were coming from,they suddenly saw Jade walking towards them.

"Oh,there you guys are. Teacher said i could stay with you if I liked so...here i am"

"Good to have you with us"

Zyro said, scrutinizing Jade as if trying to figure something out when he suddenly noticed her empty quiver and her new bow Diane and Zaria got for her after she destroyed the old one.

He suddenly felt a jolt as one of Zen’s memories was triggered.

Panicked, he quickly checked his watch and saw a dozen missed calls from the same guy.

"Arrows! I’m late"

Lilith and Jade didn’t understand what he was talking about but he just told them to follow him and started walking towards the forging class where Arnold was. Although the girls were confused, they didn’t exactly have much else to do so they just went along with it.

"Where are we going?"

Zyro didn’t look back and answered.

"I might be late for a pickup. Something’s .Zen ordered while it was still around?"

"What is it? Another priceless weapon for Jade?" Sable said sarcastically, remembering how many benefits Jade had already gotten .

"Oh, nothing like that, but you are right about who it’s for"

Both Jade and Sable were shocked once again. Just how many things had Zen prepared before he left.

Zyro looked at Jade a bit confused. ...hhbyyb v

"Aren’t you supposed to know about this? "

Jade thought for a bit and suddenly remembered Zen saying he’d get her better arrows. She’d just sort of forgotten after the excitement of all her other gear he’d given to her. Now she was hearing that there was more? Even she was starting to think it was a bit excessive.

Guessing what she was thinking, Zyro chuckled.

"That’s just how he is. You can never read the guy , but if he says he’ll take care of you,he will"

’Consequently, that also applies when flipped around’

Sable looked at him suspiciously.

"If you know him so well,why were you and Zaine.... not with him. I don’t know why he wouldn’t want you around,you seem nice enough"

Zyro smiled sheepishly

"Really? Well believe it or not i also have a dark side. As for why...it would be rude to tell. I feel like everyone should be here when I ... when it’s explained"

"Seriously?"

"It’s a reeeaaaallly long story, but you’ll definitely hear it.... eventually. Promise!"

Satisfied with his reply, the girls followed him all the way to Arnold’s workshop and quickly opened the door to get in, careful not to let the heat out.

Inside, Arnold was sitting on a stool, seeming a bit dazed. He stumbled a bit as the door opened, immediately getting up, thinking he had customers.

"Hello there I.....Do I know you?"

He sized Zyro up multiple times, trying to remember if he had seen him from somewhere but he couldn’t place his finger on it. Zyro and Zaine despite literally having the same face just gave off completely different vibes.

"Um... I’m here about the arrows? I was supposed to come here yesterday"

Arnold immediately remembered and instead of showing what he’d made, looked at Zyro like he was some sort of oddity .

"You’re the crazy guy who asked for a hundred steel arrows?"

"Crazy guy?"

Arnold suddenly recognized him

"It is you! Wasn’t your eye a different color? "

"Oh? Was it?"

Zyro said in a playful tone

"You look... different somehow "

"Um... yeah, don’t worry about it. The point is, sorry for coming in late,i had some stuff to deal with. I can pay a late fee if you want "

Zyro said, bringing up the missed calls

Arnold only now remembered why Zyro was here and looked like he was about to laugh when he mentioned a late fee.

"Oh, those? Forget about it. I was actually calling to ask for more time.

Zyro was a bit suprised hearing that

Arnold suddenly went deeper into the workshop and came out carrying four large quivers full of arrows, two in each hand and dropping them on the ground.

"Here you go. One hundred second tier steel beast arrows"

Hearing Arnold imply that these arrows were all beast weapons,Jade and Sable were shocked.

"I won’t tell you they’re all perfect but considering the time I had, what do you expect?"

Zyro took one of the arrows out, examining it

"Really? You sounded quite confident before "

Arnold smiled wryly

"Honestly I kinda bit of more than I could chew. The only reason I agreed to your ludicrous request was because I thought it would make for a challenge to test my skills against. I ended up having to cancel all my orders and almost collapsed "

"Oh, sorry. Looks like i really messed up your business " Zyro said, taking the blame for Zen’s actions.

"Messed up? Ha! Thanks to this i feel like a better blacksmith already. For a good blacksmith, sweating buckets from the heat of the forge to surpass your limits is it’s own reward. I honestly feel like I’m ready to take the advanced blacksmith test "

Zyro nodded. That was to be expected considering Arnold was also a student. He handed an arrow to Jade and asked

"What do you think?"

Jade took it and the first thing she noticed was it was heavy.

"My current bow can’t fire this" she said confidently

"It’s too heavy"

Sable took the arrow in her hand and although it was nothing to her, she knew it was a considerable weight, and had to reassess the blacksmith who’d just walked in with a hundred of these on his shoulders .

"Wait, the bow is for her?"

"Yes" Zyro answered.

"What’s wrong?"

"No deal" he suddenly said with a stone cold expression about to take the arrows back.

"Wait, what? What do you mean?"

But Arnold didn’t seem to be listening as he seemed adamant about taking his arrows back.

"I don’t understand, what’s wrong?"

Arnold looked up at him

"The deal was you take the arrows"

Zyro was even more confused now as he quickly tried to stop him

"But what does it matter who uses it? I already paid you"

Arnold scoffed

"Money? You think this is about money? I spent the last three days putting everything I had into these things,you think I’m just going to let them go to waste?"

"What do you mean waste? I told you the archer’s right here"

Arnold scoffed again

"A joke"

He had already started taking back the arrows when Sable suddenly grabbed one of the quivers

"A joke? Watch your mouth before I end up cleaning it out for you" Sable said, gripping her katana

Jade put her hand on her shoulder and tried stopping her but she wouldn’t listen. Sable was easily riled up by other people’s emotions, and whenever she was, she found it hard to control herself. Jade and Zen were the two people who had taken the most care of her back on that planet when she was at her weakest and she wouldn’t tolerate anyone badmouthing either of them.

"What’s your problem anyway? He already paid you, what are you gonna do? Return his money and materials? Just hand over the stinking arrows and we’ll be on our way"

Arnold didn’t back down, pulling on the quiver to try and pull it from Sable’s grasp but he felt like he was trying to pull something from a wall

"It’s not my fault your friend is a lousy archer. I’ll refund what the arrows cost, what I do with them is my own business "

"Lousy archer?!"

’oh no’

Zyro could see Sable’s eyes start to glow and although they were still their usual sky blue it wouldn’t be long untill they changed color and a case similar to Daryll happened.

"I said,dro-"

"Wait!"

Zyro quickly stopped Sable from finishing her sentence,aware of the possible consequences

"You said Jade is a lousy archer, but that’s just not true. It’s not that i doubt your appraisal skills i just think you should let her prove it. Please. If she fails,you can keep the arrows, and I’ll pay you extra for wasting your time

Zyro said, looking mostly at Sable and trying to plead with her to leave it alone

Sable snarled and slowly let go of the quiver,her eyes dimming.

"... fine. She gets one shot. Impress me or say goodbye to the arrows"

Zyro looked at Jade. The timid girl didn’t seem very excited but she at least didn’t look like she wanted to back down.

"W-what do I have to do?"

Arnold threw her one of the arrows and watched in disappointment as she struggled with catch it, stumbling all over the place.

Arnold went inside and brought out something that looked like a mannequin on wheels and put it at the edge of the smithy.

"Fire the arrow into the armor. Once you can get it in deep enough, I’ll consider you passed"

He also handed her two bracelets

"What are these for?"

"Dampeners. Since the arrows are also beast weapons, they also have additional stats. These things are pretty useless for higher levels, but they’ll surely stop a single second tier arrow’s stats"

Jade nodded and put them on. This had to be completely fair, only her strength.

She looked at the new bow she just got,her guy telling her it couldn’t take it but currently she had no choice.

She looked at her friends who were silently cheering her on and with labored breathing, nocked the arrow

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes

’Alright, let’s do this. make sure the arrow is oriented correctly, fletching away from the riser. Firmly between the thumb and index finger, near the nock. Position the arrow shaft on the bow’s arrow rest, and finally,snap the arrow nock onto the bowstring at the nocking point.’

Sable suddenly leaned closer and whispered to Zyro

"So we’re not gonna cheat or anything?"

"Nope. This is all her"

Sable looked at Arnold and groaned

"Can’t we just knock him out and leave. We can both tell he’s on his last legs"

"Just have some faith"

Jade suddenly opened her eyes,an ice cold focus suddenly coming out of nowhere as she released the bowstring that had been pulled to the max letting the arrow fly through the air and towards the mannequin.

It pierced straight at the center but barely went a few millimeters in before dropping to the ground lifelessly.

"What?!"

"No way!"

Jade had already given up and Sable was about to just knock Arnold unconscious when Zyro with a curious expression walked up to the mannequin.

[Charge: maximum power]

Zyro caused a few shadows to swirl around his hand, giving it some mystical effect like he was using it to boost his power, but it was just so no one would question his inhuman strength since asking personal details about someone’s ability was like asking a swordsman which technique he was least proficient in.

He suddenly threw a punch with full force, striking the mannequin and creating a loud boom that reverberated throughout the whole room.

Taking his fist back like he hadn’t just punched solid metal, Zyro looked at the imprint that was only five inches deep compared to Jade’s zero point five inches

"Doesn’t seem fair,does it?"

Arnold rolled his eyes

"I never said she failed. You guys were just overreacting"

Jade’s expression lit up as she heard that

"So that means..."

"Yeah, they’re yours. You earned ’em"

Sable let out a sigh of relief, releasing her katana’s hilt

She suddenly noticed something on Arnold’s arm and muttered

"You’re an Armstrong"

Arnold looked at his arm at the tatoo of two large Warhammers crossing and scoffed.

"You noticed, Vladimir" he said looking towards her neck

"Alright kid" he said, looking towards Jade 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"You want the arrows,fine, have them, but you’re going to have to keep proving yourself worthy, every single day"

Jade nodded visibly excited

"Oh and one more thing"

He suddenly brought out a smaller quiver, this one with only five arrows in it that seemed to let off a mysterious shine.