Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 35 Multiple Shots (Please continue reading)

"Stephena, this shouldn't be an ordinary crossbow, right?" Richard asked in surprise.

"Yes, this specially made crossbow is called the Shell-Shattering Crossbow. It's half again as big as a regular military crossbow. If the bolts used are made with special mithril arrowheads, it will be very effective against monsters. I had the master crossbow maker in the trading district modify it for me!" Stephania introduced with great pride.

Perhaps because the preparations were so thorough, the group of five arrived at the vicinity of Spider Trail without any problems after half a day of trekking.

Richard, returning to the Spider Trail, was surprised to find that the spider webs were even denser, and the large white cocoons that could be seen everywhere seemed to be more numerous than before.

Richard found this very strange. Logically, since the school had already issued multiple "Clean Up Crystal Web Spiders" quests, the number of spiders here should have decreased significantly.

But it seems that even under such intense extermination, the number of spiders here has not decreased significantly.

Moreover, judging from the current situation, it seems there's a growing trend! How strange!

With doubts in his mind, Richard immediately raised his alertness to the highest level, and the five of them began to slowly venture deeper into the Spider Trail.

Suddenly, a rustling sound came from the right side of the squad. Javier immediately whispered, "Right side!" Sure enough, a group of black widow spiders the size of washbasins appeared menacingly on the right side.

According to the pre-arranged tactics, Richard was in charge of the black widow spiders, while the others were in charge of the crystal web spiders.

Using the secret technique [Shortbow Rapid Fire], Richard plucked the gray wood shortbow in his hand like playing a harp, with the sound of "whoosh whoosh whoosh" notes ringing out incessantly. The mithril arrows, like a continuous stream of silver water, pinned down the dozen or so black widow spiders that had just charged forward.

The once-aggressive spider swarm suddenly became chaotic. The millstone-sized crystal web spider at the back managed to calm the swarm down, but it seemed to sense the formidable nature of its enemy and began to show signs of retreat.

But how could Stephanie and the others let the Crystal Web Spider retreat peacefully? The three of them had already taken out their huge shell-breaking crossbows and aimed them at the Crystal Web Spider at the back of the spider swarm. Three silver lights shot rapidly toward the Crystal Web Spider!

The moment it struck, the mithril arrow pierced the chitinous exoskeleton of the crystal web spider, creating a huge wound from which large gushes of pale green spider fluid gushed from the shattered shell.

In an instant, the Crystal Web Spider was severely injured and, entangled by Javier, was completely unable to escape! At this point, Stephanie and the others were greatly encouraged and immediately began to reload their crossbows and continue their attack.

Richard then methodically killed the remaining Black Widow Spiders one by one. After a while, a text suddenly appeared in Richard's eyes, indicating that the Crystal Web Spider was dead!

[Is absorbable energy detected? Will it be absorbed?]

"yes!"

[Gained 359 energy points.]

Not bad, the first energy gain! Richard nodded to himself.

While Richard was picking up the mithril arrow, he noticed that Stephanie walked hurriedly to the corpse of the crystal web spider, carefully took out a fist-sized, pure white egg from her bag, and began chanting some unknown incantation.

A gigantic phantom of a crystal web spider was pulled from the spider's shattered corpse. It seemed as if the audience could still hear the crystal web spider struggling and screaming in fear, but it was instantly sucked into the mysterious white egg.

Suddenly, the mysterious white egg emitted a soft white light, as if it had just let out a burp.

Richard and the other three were greatly surprised. Javier was the first to ask, "Stephena, who is this?"

Stephania no longer hid anything, touching the white egg and saying, "This is my contracted monster; it needs monster souls to grow quickly!"

Immediately, the group excitedly inquired about the origins of the egg from Stephania.

Looking at the eloquent Stephania, Richard knew that she was definitely hiding something. If all that was needed were the souls of monsters, wouldn't it be easier to kill the solitary monsters in the swamp? Why bother hunting the gregarious Crystal Web Spiders?

But that's not important. After all, Richard himself has also gained a lot of energy points. He won't jump out to expose Stephanie until his interests are harmed!

So, the group of five steadily advanced at this pace, and within half a day they had successfully killed two more waves of Crystal Web Spiders. After each kill of the Crystal Web Spiders, Stephania would perform the ritual.

Richard wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that Stephanie's mysterious white egg was becoming more and more lustrous, as if something was about to hatch!

On the other side, although Richard gained a lot of energy points, he was also exhausted because he had to use his secret technique of short bow rapid fire to quickly eliminate a large number of black widow spiders, which consumed a lot of his physical strength!

So, during his rest that night, after some thought, Richard decided to practice archery after being inspired, to see if he could find a way to reduce physical exertion.

[Host detected using a crossbow. Should energy be consumed to gain inspiration for crossbow use?]

Looking at the numbers 1 and 1089 at both ends of the slider, Richard thought for a moment and decided to try using 500 energy points to see if he could reduce the stamina consumption of the shortbow rapid fire.

Instantly, Richard's soul was pulled into the dream space as usual. Richard possessed a blurry figure, and in front of him were dozens of black spider phantoms. Richard immediately gripped the gray wood short bow in his left hand and drew out mithril arrows with his right hand, and began to fire rapidly.

As always, each arrow shot brought Richard a wealth of insights into controlling the greywood shortbow.

But this time was different because he had already planned in his mind that each arrow should minimize physical exertion while still hitting the target.

Guided by this concept, Richard executed a series of actions—drawing the arrow, drawing the bow, aiming, and shooting—in one fluid motion, his speed increasing rapidly! Suddenly, in a flash of inspiration, Richard managed to draw two mithril arrows simultaneously, nocking them on the bowstring at the same time. Instantly, two silver lightning bolts, like dragons emerging from the sea, shattered the two spider phantoms!

Hmm! Richard seems to be getting a feel for how inspiration works.

With complete focus, Richard became increasingly familiar with shooting two arrows at a time. Gradually, he began to draw three arrows and shoot. From missing all three, to hitting with two, and finally hitting with all three!

In this way, through repeated practice, time in the dream almost flew by!

When Richard came to his senses again, a line of text appeared before his eyes.

[Ding! Host has been inspired and has mastered the secret technique: Multi-Shot]

[Multi-Shot: Fires up to three arrows at once, attacking three different targets. Using this technique consecutively will consume a lot of stamina.]

Richard brought up the panel and, sure enough, found that under the Secret Technique Shortbow Rapid Fire, there was a new Secret Technique Multiple Shots.

Richard, who had acquired the new secret technique [Multi-Shot], showed it off briefly when he encountered a wave of Crystal Web Spiders early the next morning, which immediately shocked everyone else!

Kelvin stared at the Black Widow's corpses scattered on the ground, his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. "Richard, do you really not have elven blood? Your archery skills are simply... simply terrifying!"

Kelvin stammered, unsure of what word to use to describe Richard's archery skills. Finally, unable to think of a word, he used the word "terrifying."

"Richard, your archery skills are simply beyond human capabilities! I think you must have elven blood in your ancestors!" The senior student, Havel, said with great confidence this time.

If Richard's archery skills were something that someone could still match before, he felt that this time, a pure-blooded human definitely couldn't achieve such archery skills!

"Although I've never seen an elf shoot an arrow, I have a feeling that even an elf might not be able to outshoot Richard!" the freckled girl Lena said with a very certain tone.

(End of this chapter)