Dungeon Raider System
Chapter 738 - 738: The old bow Part 1

Without much of a choice, Alice agreed to Pangeotis terms and he helped her sort the different artifacts following the traditional academic indexing.

Had Pangeotis given it his all he would have finished the task at hand in an hour despite Uriel's collection being way larger than he expected, but the old Professor didn't miss on the chance to study his artifacts and he worked as slow as his enthusiasm allowed it.

"This is a remarkable find!" He shouted in excitement when he found an old wooden bow. It was beautifully carved, but time had played its part in deteriorating it to the point where it was almost impossible to recognize. The string was so old and shabby it looked like it would cut on its own if they tried to draw it.

It's underwhelming appearance made Alice lose interest in an instant, but she regained it when she thought of the possibility to use the arrowhead left by Scoundrel.

"Put it aside, we're not going to store it for the time being." She said and continued to store the rest of the artifacts in boxes until they finished their task.

Aware that he had crossed a major boundary with his now colleague, Pangeotis left as soon as possible to avoid any reprisals he knew would hit him as soon as Uriel found out he poked his nose in his collection leaving Alice Alone once more.

She remained studying the bow for a while and decided to give it a try despite its shabby appearance, which meant she needed to craft some arrows. Luckily, Uriel's collection was filled with all sorts of arrowheads ranging from the sharp dented obsidian ones, to the lightweight bone apart from the common flint ones.

But having arrowheads to spare only made it possible for Alice to craft arrows, not easy. Thanks to the study group she knew several fletching techniques used by different cultures from around the world, but knowing how is not the same as being skilled enough to do the job.

There was also the problem with acquiring the proper wood, or any wood for that matter, since it was only possible to do it outside the city.

Because of that, she decided to simply buy regular carbon fiber arrows from a store downtown and replace some of the arrowheads with Uriel's. Putting an arrow together proved to be way easier than making it from scratch.

She hung a target for practice at a distance on the first floor and drew the bow with a relaxed posture. It was her first time using a bow, but she figured since people from the ancient times did it, then it couldn't possibly be too difficult for her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Nika snarled causing Alice to accidentally use too much strenght and resulting in the bow being broken.

"It's not what you think!"

"Whew, for a minute I thought you were playing around with Uriel's stuff," Nika sighed in a relieved manner, then noticed Alice guilt ridden face. "you're in deep trouble. When he finds out he'll be pissy for days."

"I only broke it because you showed up out of nowhere, who's she by the way?" Alice asked after noticing Bella's presence.

"Mind your own business, rookie." Bella hovered towards the fridge and started making herself a sandwich.

"It doesn't matter the reason why you broke it, he'll be angry anyway." Nika said with a somber expression that scared Alice even further.

"Do you think he'll notice if I fix it?"

"Oh! Definitely, he knows his stuff like the palm of his hand." Nika added fuel to the fire that was Alice anxiety.

"If you ask me, I think it works in our favor. If he gets mad at her, he won't be so upset we failed to get a zeppelin that can take us to Europe."

"But that is the reason why I wanted to learn how to use this bow. Professor Pangeotis said there's a zeppelin looking for security, but they'll only take strong hunters."

Nika pondered for a few seconds and arrived at the conclusion that, while using Alice as a scapegoat would drive away all of Uriel's annoyance directly at her effectively putting Nika and Bella in a safe position, it was actually on their best interest to help her.

That way, Uriel wouldn't be so mad at her for breaking his bow and they could achieve the task Uriel entrusted them with, which was to find a zeppelin that would take them to Europe.

"I just hope that instead of paying for the trip but actually getting paid for making it will make things better." Nika sighed.

"You're going to help me!? Miss Nika, you're the best boss one could ever hope for." Alice cried.

"I know," Nika said with a smug. "now hand me that old thing."

Alice did as she asked and watched with curiosity as Nika rummaged through containers until she found a monster rank flux orb. Curiosity turned into disbelief when after crushing the orb, the bow not only repaired itself but it looked even better than it did before. The eroded carvings were replaced by a fine pattern, the cracks on the wood disappeared and even the string lookeed brand new.

"How?" Alice gaped at the sight of the new bow.

"Don't look at a gifted horse in the mouth, just shoot the damned thing." Nika said.

Alice did as Nika asked and a wide smile appeared on her face ten seconds before the arrow hit its mark, since she already knew it would be a bullseye.

"Not bad," Bella said, her mouth filled with the peanut butter sandwich she just made, then flicked her finger at the target cutting it in half with a swift wind blade. "but it lacks damage."

"Why don't you try channeling some flux with the bow?" Nika proposed and Alice nodded, though when she used her trait that allowed her to know the possible future she quickly retracted the arrow from the bow and shook her head.

"I don't think it's safe to use it in interiors."