Infinite Skill Devourer
Chapter 56: A Marksman Arrow III

Chapter 56: A Marksman Arrow III

As they continued deeper into the dungeon, now in a cave, Yurei suddenly stopped and turned to Ryuen.

"Give me the bow," she said, holding out her hand.

Ryuen raised a brow. "What for?"

"I’m going to show you how to use it properly," she replied. "I know you don’t know how to use it."

"And how did you know that?"

"You’re a modern-time assassin," Daiki finally spoke up and chuckled as he made his way to a boulder to sit down.

"A marksman, to be precise. You can’t use something so... what’s the word... yeah, traditional."

"It’s slow," Ryuen admitted and averted his gaze, but Yurei used her fingers to move his face back to her.

"It is only slow if you don’t have a good aim."

Ryuen took a deep breath and stretched out his hand to summon the bow and arrow.

At first, it took a few seconds before the blue bow materialized along with five arrows, just as Ryuen had expected.

He handed it over to her without protest and leaned against the wall.

The moment Yurei held the bow, she immediately frowned.

"This... is cold," she uttered, tightening her fingers around the grip.

"It’s a weapon. It’s supposed to be cold," Ryuen said in a bored tone.

But she shook her head. "I mean unnaturally cold. Even for a magical weapon, this level of cold isn’t normal."

She examined it carefully, running her exposed finger over the frame while it glowed after every touch.

The light blue paint wasn’t just decorative—it pulsed faintly, as if it had energy within.

Then she took the first arrow from him, and frost immediately spread along its shaft, coating the arrow in a thin layer of ice.

Ryuen and Daiki watched in silence, curiosity evident in their eyes.

Yet, they dared not interrupt her.

They watched as she nocked the arrow, testing its weight. Then she smiled.

"Stand back," she warned.

Ryuen took a step away as she took aim at a large boulder ahead.

She didn’t waste time aiming at the center—she already had a perfect shot.

And then she released it.

WHOOSH

The arrow whistled through the air like a bullet, its speed almost unnatural.

It hit the boulder with a loud crack and embedded itself halfway in.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the entire boulder was engulfed in frost.

Deep cracks formed along its surface from the spot where the arrow had struck.

Before it shattered into frozen fragments.

Ryuen blinked, amused yet curious. "That’s really..."

"...that’s no ordinary bow," Daiki finished for him as he got off the boulder he was sitting on.

Yurei lowered the weapon, staring at it with mild surprise. After a brief analysis, she smiled.

"It has two effects," she said. "It can either freeze an object completely..."

"...or act like a high-velocity projectile, piercing through a target before freezing whatever’s inside or killing them like a regular bullet."

She turned the bow over in her hands.

"This... isn’t just a normal weapon. It’s a cursed one."

Ryuen crossed his arms. "Cursed?"

"It’s bound to something," Yurei said.

"Whoever made this didn’t just enchant it with ice magic—they put an essence in it."

"Probably an elemental mage... water, to be precise."

Ryuen’s gaze moved to the bow, a feeling of discomfort rising inside him.

He had only picked it because Yuki had told him to.

But now he was starting to question why.

Did she know about this?

Before he could think about it more, Yurei handed the bow back to him, and it vanished as soon as he touched it, returning to his inventory.

"You’ll need to be careful with this, but since you’re cursed and it’s a cursed object, it might as well work perfectly with you."

Once Daiki and Yurei turned around to continue moving, Yuki Onna appeared beside him, with a puffling in her hands.

"Care to explain?"

"I made it, and the other one too," she smiled, wrapping her arms around his as they moved.

"I decided to let you have it because you set me free."

"How did it get out of your world?"

"Remember I told you I was trapped?"

"Yes."

"Well, before I was trapped, I used that as my katana to defend myself. Unfortunately, I lost it, while the katana got lost with hers," she stated, pointing at Yurei with her pale fingers.

Ryuen processed her words carefully.

The bow and the lost katana were connected to what had happened before.

And somehow they got lost with Yurei’s katana as well.

He stared at Yurei for a while, moving silently despite her speed.

If Yuki was suggesting that Yurei’s weapon had a similar origin, then... maybe Yurei had an idea where to find it.

But how would he explain it to her? He sighed and moved his gaze back to Yuki.

"Are you saying she has a weapon like yours?"

Ryuen whispered, hoping they wouldn’t hear him, because he had no explanation to give them at the moment.

Yuki Onna nodded in response. "Yes, but it’s the opposite."

"Fire?"

"Not exactly, but you’ll know it when you see it."

She leaned closer and whispered in his ear.

Her icy breath tickled his ear, and he had to raise his hand to his ear.

"If she gets it before you get mine, then you won’t be able to wield mine like it’s supposed to."

"Isn’t it just a regular sword?"

"No," she laughed and slowly let go of him.

"It’s a blade that cuts through anything, and something that turns whatever it leaves a mark on to ice."

Ryuen sighed. "Understood."

"Alright, don’t let it get lost completely. If it gets into the wrong hands, the consequences will be disastrous."

"Sure, sure. Now back into the chambers you go."

Yuki shook her head. "It’s lonely there."

"I can’t really do anything at the moment now, and besides, you’ve spent years alone before."

"That was when I wasn’t bound to a human."

"I’ll let you roam free when we get to Mirath."

"Will you let me do a little stretching, at least to know all my abilities work?"

Ryuen shrugged. "I don’t mind, just don’t let anyone attack you."

Yuki laughed and kissed his cheek. "Won’t be an issue."

As she spoke, she vanished just as she had come, leaving Ryuen to his thoughts once again.

Now he had to find the third human, find Yurei’s and Yuki’s swords.

He exhaled in exhaustion and put his cold hands back into his pockets.

The cold Yuki caused him made him remember it was nearly impossible to make ice cream back at Kaori’s apartment without waiting for hours.

And she was basically an Ice queen.

He smiled and closed his eyes. "Plenty of uses."