He moved to the side of the archery range and nodded to one of his helpers. The official blew a horn, signaling the start. The sixteen of us lined up at the shooting stations, each with three targets set at varying distances.

  "First round!" the official called. "Aim true, and may the best archer win!"

  We each had three shots for this stage. My first target was close; a warm-up, really. I nocked my arrow, inhaled, and released. Thunk! Dead center. A few participants cheered for themselves as they hit the mark, while others groaned at missed shots.

  The second target was farther, with a slight breeze complicating things. Still, my arrow landed right on the bullseye. Perfect.

  The third target was the farthest, but at this stage it was still child's play to me. Adjusting for distance and wind, I loosed my arrow. It struck right at the center, earning me a respectable score of 9.

  I was the first to finish all three targets so I looked around, and fair enough, the three players I hade made notes of before fared the best out of all of the others. I couldn't see perfectly, but from what it looked like, all three of them had a score of 9 as well, just like the two NPCs I had noticed before.

  The second round started just a minute after the arrows were cleared off the field. The targets were readjusted further away from us.

  I tightened my grip on my bow. The first target was still very close compared to my regular training, though the wind was getting stronger. Nevertheless, my arrow landed in the center.

  The second target was trickier, because the wind became strong enough for a second to threaten the stability of the tents. I waited for the perfect moment and fired, the arrow sinking into the bullseye. This was the first time I actually had to adjust and calculate a bit before firing.

  By the time I reached the third target, I could feel the tension in the air. Each of us was taking longer to aim, knowing every point counted. My arrow struck the outer half of the center, which still counted as a bullseye, but I wasn't the most satisfied with the result. In real life this shot would have been pretty easy, but I was still adjusting to my virtual body.

  Once again I was the first to finish, although not by much. The leather hat wearing NPC shot his shot two seconds after mine, and from what I've seen, he had hit three bullseye's as well. I decided not to check the other participants' scores and tried to calm my nerves. I felt the adrenaline rushing through my veins, but I knew I had to have a steady heartbeat if I wanted to hit 3 more perfect shots.

  For the final round, the targets were farther than ever and the wind was roaring quite ferociously. Hitting the bullseye would be a bit of a challenge IRL, and here in Godsrealm, I knew I had to give it my all to make it.

  The official raised his hand. "Three shots each. Make them count!"

  I nocked my first arrow, steadying my breath. I slowed my heartbeat until it was all I could hear, beating in my ears. The center of the target was all I could see. For a brief moment the wind died down and I released. The arrow struck right in the middle. I couldn't deny it was a bit of luck, but hey, maybe my 2 points in my luck stat finally came in clutch.

  For the second shot, I adjusted my stance, accounting for the wind and the sway. This time, the arrow found the bullseye once again, and the crowd erupted in cheers.

  One more.

  The final target felt impossibly distant, the pressure mounting. My fingers trembled slightly as I drew back the bowstring. I exhaled, my vision narrowing to just the glowing center of the target. I was waiting for the wind to decrease once again, but it didn't feel like it wanted to get more bearable any time soon. I sighed and tilted my bow a bit to the left, accounting for both the wind and the distance.

  This was farther than an olympic shot, and I wasn't even using my own body. I knew I could make this shot in the outside world if I gave it my all, but it was still tricky in this world.

  Release.

  The arrow flew, cutting through the air with perfect precision. It struck the bullseye dead center, the glow flashing brightly as the crowd roared.

  At this point I realized I didn't even notice that the crowd was cheering for me. I had hit all three targets perfectly in all three rounds, meaning I had a perfect score.

  After a while, everyone finished their rounds and the three best scores were announced by Nolan.

  "At the third place with 24 points is Castiel! Castiel, come and get your rewards at the tent!" the man wearing the leather hat didn't look particularly happy with his results, but when he realized that everyone was looking at him, he forced a surrendering smile on his face as he walked to get his spoils.

  "At second place, with 25 points is Lorrando! Adventurer, come, take your prize!"

  The hawk faced player looked surprised as his name was called. He was the farthest away from me in the competition so I couldn't see his shots clearly, and he was probably in the same situation, because he looked like he didn't expect anyone to beat his score.

  "And our champion, with 27 points, nonetheless! Orion, today's only competitor to score a perfect 27 points! Orion, come to the tent and gather your rewards!"

  I smiled. I was satisfied with my performance, but deep inside I felt a bit threatened.

  That man scored 25 points, meaning he barely missed something, I thought. He's very good.

  I wasn't too surprised that an NPC did well in an event like this. Archery was part of this world just as much as building IKEA furniture was part of ours; no wonder the residents of Godsrealm were good at it.

  However I didn't expect a player to be this close to my skill level in Carpa. Carpa's vicinity only had about 600 players if I remembered correctly. If there were 2 expert archers in these 600, and there were 2 million playing this game, where does that put me? Were there really more than 6,000 archers who were just as good as me, or was it just incidental?

  As I got to the tent, Nolan reached out for my hand.

  "I have never seen anyone being as good with the bow as you, young adventurer. You champions are truly godsent," he congratulated me and handed me my 60 coins.

  "And, your special reward," he said, opening a small wooden chest. There was a silver necklace inside, with a little feather medallion attached to it.

  This was the perfect early game accessory for a ranger like me. I instantly equipped it and I already felt becoming more proficient.

  "Also, since you're the first player to end the event with a perfect score, you have been qualified for the secret reward!" Nolan said and shortly after I heard the ding! sound of the system.

  Yes!

  I was thrilled. This was my second secret reward and judging by the first one, the reward should be quite good. I was hoping for a unique bow or a set of armor that boosted my dexterity, but what I got exceeded my expectations.

  First of all, I jumped instantly to level 7 and was already halfway to level 8. I had gotten more than 3000 experience points.

  However the real prize was the title I had unlocked.

  Two level's worth of dexterity from a single title!

  10 dexterity might not be too much later in the game, but this early it was game changing. Not to mention, the title had the suffix "growth" in it, which most likely meant it could be upgraded! This also offset all the points spent on strength.

  Speaking of strength, I put my five new attribute points to it. With all my new items, stats and my newly aquired title I was much stronger than before.

  After I got my rewards I quickly checked out the ranking of the event, curious about how the others had placed. In fourth place was someone called Sylph with 23 points. I had counted the points of the ponytail haired girl and the bearded man as well, and none of them should have had 23 points, so this Sylph fellow was still unknown to me.

  Fifth place was called Alysanna with 22 points, which checked out. She was the girl with the crafted bow, most likely.

  At sixth place was Frederick Gatling, 20 points, which sounded like an NPC name, so it could have been the chain mailed soldier.

  Seventh place reached 19 points, and it was most likely the bearded man with the goblin bow. His name was Garret.

  I made mental notes of all of these players since I wanted to keep a close eye on talented archers; they could both be friends or rivals, after all.

  As I was thinking about this, someone gently touched my shoulder. As I turned around, I saw the chainmail-wearing soldier – Frederick, I assumed – standing next to me.

  "You're a natural talent, Orion, if I do say so myself," the man said while caressing his impressive moustache. "My name is Frederick Gatling and I'm captain of the Carpa Militia. I knew I didn't have much of a chance at winning at the competition, since Lord... I mean, Castiel was also participating, but I didn't expect so many adventurers to beat both him and me. I have watched all of the three previous rounds, and the most points there were 21 points, and that was by Zieck, our best archer in the militia."

  He took a break.

  "Truth be told, I was kind of disappointed at first. I know you adventurers are still getting used to this world, but... I don't know, I expected you all to be demigods or something," he laughed.

  "Well, I'm sorry we're such a letdown," I said with a bit more edge in my voice than I intended.

  "Oh, don't misunderstand me! I didn't mean to offend you! We just, you know, didn't know what to expect from this day. But it turned out all of you are so similar to us. Except for the returning back from the dead part, of course," he glanced into the distance longingly before shaking himself and getting his smile back on his face.

  "But then I saw you and Lorrando, and all of the other amazing adventurers in this competition and I realized that not all of you adventurers are equal to one another. Just like us, there are more talented ones between your ranks, too. And some of you really are quite powerful," he finished his monologue with an appreciative glance.

  I nodded and thanked him, reassuring the man that no offense was taken in our brief conversation. Looking at his equipment, I had a feeling that despite my innate talent, I was too low leveled to be able to fight someone of his caliber just yet. NPCs had levels also, but just like players, you couldn't see it unless you were in the same party, raid or guild.

  My guess was Captain Gatling was around level 25, while the other militia roaming Carpa's streets were level 15-18, just judging by their equipment and their aura. Beating him in a targed shooting competition for someone of my skill level was a non-issue, but a straight up fight would be much different. Target's didn't care about the damage you did; it only mattered that you hit them.

  "I almost forgot!" Frederick realized. "The reason I came to talk to you was because Castiel wants to see you."

  Castiel. It was the other NPC who participated in the shooting competition.

  "Who is he?" I asked the captain.

  "Well, it would be better if he told you himself," the captain said, almost whispering. He looked like he wasn't sure how much to tell me, but I saw the respect he had for me in his eyes, so I patiently waited.

  In the end he let out a huge sigh and continued. "He's an important figure, but he's in incognito right now. The fact that he wants to talk to you is already rather impressive. I wouldn't make him wait too much if I were you."