Finally, Moon had reached full mastery of his new skill. The evolve prompt was already available, but he decided to save that evolution for later.
He wanted to prioritize learning the other two skills before committing to the upgrade path.
Around seven hours had passed since he had started training Deadeye. He had taken small breaks inbetween to avoid straining his newly repaired mana channels, but even the breaks hadn’t broken his focus. The skill had been fun to refine.
"Seventeen hours left. I need to work harder."
He was determined to learn at least two of the three skills he had copied before Sierra’s session tomorrow morning. Waiting until the next class rotation to see the archer girl again wasn’t an option. That was a week away.
Moon decided to choose Falcon’s Focus as his natural choice, its mana consumption was much lower than Piercing Arrow, which cost much more mana.
He selected it and activated the skill.
[Falcon’s Focus]
[Proficiency: 0%]
[Details: Sharpens perception, greatly increasing accuracy and critical rate. +100% Accuracy. +50% Critical Rate]
The change wasn’t groundbreaking. It wasn’t the kind of ability that would win a fight on its own. But it was useful.
His perception improved by a small, noticeable margin. His peripheral awareness increased subtly.
"Perfect."
Falcon’s Focus was an eyes-and-perception skill.
"I could rest my arms for some time..."
He had been drawing bowstrings for hours, and his shoulders had earned a break.
Moon knew exactly how he wanted to train this one.
He walked toward the other end of the training complex, where Tom had installed a range of simulation equipment for advanced target practice. Most of the machines were for higher-tier fighters, but the training complex had presets for every level.
Moon entered the room and stopped at the central tablet mounted on the wall.
He scrolled through the preset library. There were various environmental simulations with terrain drills, and combat scenarios.
He kept scrolling until he found the one he wanted.
<.Aimlab>
He selected it and a sub-menu opened with difficulty tiers, target types and environmental themes.
The sub-menu was incredibly diverse, whether it was fast targets, slow targets, flying targets.
He selected Second Star Evolver strength as the starting difficulty. He would ramp up from there.
"Warm up first." He muttered as he put on the glasses for best experience
The Aimlab preset was simple in concept. The training room reconfigured itself into a simulated environment matching the selected theme. Targets appeared throughout the environment. Moon’s job was to spot them, track them, and eliminate them with as much accuracy and speed as his current skill level allowed. The system logged every hit, every miss, every response time, and every environmental factor that affected his performance.
The training room’s projection systems activated, and the room changed into what appeared to be a jungle inside the Sanctuary.
’This looks very much like the real one.’ Moon thought as he watched thick trees rise around him.
Broad leaves fluttered in a simulated breeze, shadows played across the underbrush and soft ambient sounds filled the air.
The targets began to appear shortly after.
They were small, around the size of a rabbit. Camouflaged, making them difficult to track without great focus.
Some hung from tree branches. Others crouched in bushes. A few moved between hiding spots at fast, unpredictable speeds.
Moon’s Falcon’s Focus activated automatically as he began tracking.
His eyes locked onto the first target. A small red silhouette hidden behind a bush thirty meters away.
He tracked its movement as it moved to a new position behind a tree trunk. Then another target came into view on his left. Then a third at long range up in the canopy.
He kept tracking.
His proficiency began to rise.
Every target he tracked strengthened his eye-mind connection.
By the time the thirty-minute timer ended, his proficiency had climbed to twenty percent.
"Not bad for pure observation." Moon nodded in satisfaction.
He walked back to the tablet and adjusted the settings.
He picked the bow as his weapon of choice before selecting a higher difficulty tier.
Three Star Evolver strength.
And he enabled the attacking mode. This time he wasn’t just spotting the targets. He had to eliminate them. Every hit added points. Every miss deducted accuracy.
Time bonuses accrued for fast eliminations.
The higher difficulty added new mechanics as some targets moved faster. A few decoys mixed into the target pool would penalize him for engaging them.
Halfway through the training, Moon found himself enjoying it more than he had expected.
It stopped feeling like practice. The hard targets, the rising proficiency counter, the accumulating points, the competitive edge of the scoring system, all of it combined into a training loop that pulled him in the way a good game pulled a player in.
"Whoever made this knew what they were doing."
He could suddenly see why his classmates used to talked about Aimlab the way they did, and why some fighters got addicted to it.
His points climbed slowly.
Then a notification popped up in the training system’s overhead display.
<You have reached 102,510 points!>
<You have reached the leaderboard!>
<Your current ranking: 26>
<To verify ranking, you must undergo a test.>
Moon paused between shots, staring at the notification with mild surprise.
The training system’s score component apparently connected to a broader network that tracked player performance across every Aimlab facility. A ranking of twenty-six meant that among all Third Star Evolvers registered on the system, only twenty-five had produced better scores in his current test.
He was curious about the verification test. The system clearly had safeguards against fighters of higher tiers manipulating the rankings by submitting scores in lower brackets. A Third Star ranking required proof that the player was actually at Third Star combat prowess.
Technically, Moon was still a First Star Evolver by acupoint count.
His combat prowess was somewhere in the Four to Five Star range with skills active.
He wasn’t sure how the verification system would categorize him.
"I don’t have time for that now. Maybe some other time."
He dismissed the notification and returned to the drill.
He glanced at his skill status.
[Falcon’s Focus]
[Proficiency: 67%]
Two-thirds of the way.
The next several hours passed in a blur.
Moon lost himself in the rhythm.
His proficiency crossed seventy percent. Then eighty. Then ninety.
His arrows landed with increasing precision.
In turn, his ranking climbed.
By the time he reached the final stretch of his session, he was hunting for the number one spot.
His arrows kept flying. His points kept rising.
"Finally."
Moon lowered the bow and exhaled slowly. His eyes felt slightly strained from the continued focus. But his skill was mastered.
He pulled up the status screen.
[Falcon’s Focus]
[Order: Second]
[Rank: Rare]
[Level: 20]
[Details: Sharpens perception, greatly increasing accuracy and critical rate. +300% Accuracy. +150% Critical Rate]
The bonuses had tripled from base.
The training system’s overhead display flashed a fresh notification.
<You have reached 159,510 points!>
<You have reached the leaderboard!>
<Your current ranking: 2.>
<To verify ranking, you must undergo a test.>
Moon stared at the notification.
His mouth curved into a small smile.
"Not bad for a quick session."
He glanced up at the leaderboard again. The first-place score sat about seven thousand points above his current total.
Certainly reachable, if he ran another session with Falcon’s Focus at max and if he pushed his tempo harder. But the leaderboard verification still stood between him and any officially recognized position.
He’d deal with that later.
Either way, the training had done what he needed it to do.
Two skills mastered.
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