Chapter 441: Archery Training—The Stillness and Motion of Shooting at Fixed Targets

Jier was noncommittal about this talk of luck, simply telling them to shoot another arrow to see.

If this arrow could still hit a difficult spot, then one could only say this person's technique was outstanding, but if it didn't hit a vital spot, then the previous headshot was truly just luck.

Following this, the archer raised their hand to draw the bow, took a brief aim, and released the arrow.

Whoosh—thwack!

It hit again, but when Jier looked closely, this time it did not hit the dummy's head, but rather the center of the dummy's chest—that is, the position of the heart.

"This position..." Jier found it hard to say; if this archer's technique was average and their luck was good, then hitting the torso was a matter of course, as it had the largest surface area. But they had specifically hit the fatal vital point on the torso: the heart!

So, whether this person had good luck or high technique was very difficult to distinguish simply.

Of course, it was also possible that the other party was playing a joke on Jier.

"That's enough, I already understand your technique; now, let us proceed to the next step!" Just as Jier said this, the 'unlucky' archer who had failed to hit the dummy earlier stepped forward.

He said: "Sir Knight, give me one more chance; this time I will definitely be able to hit the dummy!"

Jier looked at him, and seeing that he did not appear emotionally agitated, he nodded: "I will give you one more chance. How about you try to hit the dummy before the arrows in your quiver are exhausted?"

As if he had been insulted, the archer still nodded slowly. He seemed to have made up his mind that this time he would definitely hit the dummy not far away.

Just as he decided to draw his bow and shoot, Jier suddenly spoke up: "There is one thing I want to ask you."

The few people in the Archery Squad all looked at Jier, and the archer preparing to shoot was even more confused, not knowing what question Knight Jier had to ask him specifically.

"Please go ahead?"

Jier frowned and looked into his eyes: "I want to ask, are you usually accurate when shooting?"

This archer was somewhat ashamed: "I dare not lie, but if I say now that I am usually quite accurate, everyone will think I am lying and bragging, right?"

Jier had a guess: "Then, let me ask again, do you usually see things clearly at night?"

This archer was somewhat puzzled: "Reasonably clearly, I suppose?"

Jier did not believe him, and he held up three fingers: "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three?" the other party guessed.

Jier stepped back several paces, waved his hand, and held up three fingers again: "How about now?"

This archer was somewhat confused: "Five fingers?"

Jier let out a breath, and he asked the other two archers: "My fingers?"

The two answered in unison: "Still three!"

The problem had been found; this archer was not inaccurate—his archery performance during the day was quite good—but he had a degree of night blindness, making him unable to see things in the dark at night.

Jier told this judgment to the archer, which immediately caused the archer to break down: "Do you mean to say that not being able to see clearly at night is a type of illness? But I am not unable to see things; look, the campfire, my companions, the carriages—I can see all of these."

Jier waved his hand: "These are all very obvious; everyone can see them. Then let me ask you, how many carriages does our carriage team have? Don't recall, just count them with your eyes."

The archer looked at the carriages gathered in a U-shape not far away. He tried to count them, but the few carriages slightly further away from the campfire's illumination made things difficult for him.

Jier asked the other two: "How many?"

"Eight carriages, Knight Jier." Both answered correctly. One was Jier's own carriage, two empty ones were for the Warriors, one carriage was for transporting the Mao Maos, and besides these, there were four carrying quite a lot of supplies—mainly various supplies used by the Changmai Village Villagers on their return journey after being rescued.

"You see, others can easily see things at night, but you cannot. You yourself might not notice what the problem is, but in reality, this is a type of night blindness caused by an unbalanced diet."

"Ah? An unbalanced diet." The word 'balanced' was somewhat obscure, making it a bit hard for the few people present to understand.

Jier explained it to them: "It means that among the food you eat, there are things you like and things you don't like. If you don't eat the things you don't like at all, your body will lack certain nutrients, causing your eyes to be unable to see clearly at night. Tell me, are you a bit picky with your food?"

Being asked this, the archer looked embarrassed: "Yes, yes, sir. It is true that when I eat, I let others help me eat the things I don't like. I didn't expect there to be such serious consequences. I promise I won't do it again! I promise!"

Jier nodded, and he looked at the other two archers: "In the future, when you eat, keep an eye on him. Supervise him to ensure he eats all his food; he cannot secretly dump it, nor can he let others eat it."

"Understood! We will watch him eat." The two archers said while laughing; no one expected that this person's inability to hit the dummy at night was actually due to being a picky eater, which subsequently led to night blindness.

Later, everyone gave him a nickname called 'Night-Blind', and even though he was no longer blind later and could see things clearly at night, the nickname stayed with him.

"Since we know the cause, you should train first. After your diet is adjusted, the night blindness will naturally alleviate, you will be able to see things in the distance at night, and your shooting performance will naturally rise," Jier said to him.

But this archer was clearly holding his breath. He ignored the others' words, stood firm, and drew his bow. This time he aimed carefully, then actually closed his eyes and released the bowstring.

Whoosh—thwack!

It actually hit!

This result both gratified him and left people laughing and crying, because Jier and the others had all seen him close his eyes at the very end to release the arrow. Intentionally aiming and missing, then closing his eyes and hitting by chance—it was indeed unusual and interesting.

With a smile on his face, Jier began to explain some basic knowledge about using a bow and arrow to the three archers.

"There are no very strict requirements for posture when shooting, but generally, for volleying arrows in a battle formation, you need to stand with both feet firm, head up and chest out, angled forward, and after hearing the command, raise the bow and draw it half or full before releasing."

The three looked at each other, thinking that the three of them could not form a sizable archer formation to conduct battlefield volleying.

"For normal shooting, you just need to stand straight. When shooting, you must consider the arc trajectory of the arrow's flight; when the target is further away, you must consider the height of the arrow's drop. If there is wind, you must consider the wind direction and the intensity of the wind, adjusting accordingly. Strive to hit the target accurately."

Everyone nodded; they understood this point very well. When there is wind, arrows just don't hit accurately.

"When shooting from behind cover, try to have your left side protrude from the cover. Because everyone is right-handed, holding the bow with the left hand and pulling the bowstring with the right, keeping the cover on the right side of the body allows most of the body to remain in a protected state. But if your cover is on the left side, and you stick your body out to shoot, your entire upper body has to protrude from the cover, which is not safe."

Jier used the campfire as cover and demonstrated it for the three archers.

When he was on the left side of the campfire, he only needed to stick out a small part of his body to perform the action of drawing and shooting; at this time, his right arm and a small part of his body were blocked by the campfire's light. But when he was on the right side of the campfire, shooting at this time required sticking out his entire upper body, which was clearly not as safe as before.

With such a demonstration, the few immediately understood and expressed that they had learned something.

"What I just talked about was shooting at fixed, stationary targets, which is what we call 'static against static'—your position is fixed, and the enemy's position is also fixed. But everyone understands that this does not easily occur in actual combat; the enemy is always moving, and always in motion."

"Therefore, at this time, you must learn the 'static against dynamic' shooting method." Jier held up three fingers; because they were close, this time the night-blind archer could also see how many fingers Jier was holding up.

"I have three aiming methods here." Jier casually took a bow and arrow from one of them, stood in a position facing the dummy, and had the three stand behind him, very close. Only by being close could they see exactly how he was aiming.

Jier first gestured: "Now, suppose a deer emerges from the bushes on the front left and accelerates while running toward the right. Let's use the dummy's position as its specific running route. So now, how should we aim at such an animal running at an uneven speed?"

Facing Jier's question, the young archer who had previously been a hunter in the village gave the answer: "I would first let my line of sight follow the target, then adjust the imaginary flight trajectory of the arrow, aim in advance at a position it will run to, and then release the arrow at the right moment."

Jier nodded: "This is a traditional method, using the naked eye and experience to judge the target's movement speed, then pre-placing your arrow's trajectory onto the target's movement trajectory. As long as the two have a probability of overlapping at the same moment, there is a probability of hitting."

But then Jier said: "But this also has shortcomings. It relies heavily on the hunter's observation and experience, especially in situations where you must know beforehand what it is you are aiming at. You know what you are hunting, so naturally, you roughly know how its movement speed is, and therefore when the target appears, you can quickly use a kind of experiential intuition to select the arrow's aiming direction in advance on the target's movement trajectory."

"If expressed, it would look like this."

After Jier finished speaking, he began to demonstrate for the three of them.

He pretended that a deer ran out from the front left and dashed toward the right. Without even looking, Jier shot an arrow toward a spot on the right.

Of course, when shooting, Jier deliberately lowered the Arrow, and the shot Arrow flew only a few meters before hitting the soft ground, sticking into the earth and causing the tail of the Arrow to shake incessantly.

Afterward, Jier introduced the second method.

"It's also very simple: it's just that our Arrow keeps moving along with the target. No matter how it moves, your Arrow follows just a bit behind it, getting used to it and letting your brain understand the other party's movement trajectory and speed. When you want to shoot it, you suddenly let the Arrow's aiming trajectory overtake the other party. For the specific overtaking distance, you must consider the other party's speed and movement trajectory, and try to choose a moment when the other party is moving steadily to shoot. At this time, release the Bowstring, and the Arrow will chase after the other party and hit it."

"Without me saying it, you should all be able to understand that this method is suitable for dealing with rare or even first-time seen unfamiliar targets. Because the experience we rely on lacks the target's relevant speed, movement trajectory, and methods of approaching or escaping, we need to observe for a while before shooting. After roughly determining the other party's state, only then do we let the Arrow's trajectory overtake the other party a little, and then release the arrow."

This method is suitable for adventurers dealing with unfamiliar enemies or Refining Qi archers Hunting unusual Monsters. Because the main enemies now should be Human targets, Jier didn't talk much about this.

He demonstrated this shooting method to the three of them.

While demonstrating, he said: "Now let's assume a Goblin runs out from the bushes on the left. A Goblin is a type of weak, gregarious Monster; a single one is easy to kill, but once they gather in a group, they are not easy to deal with. Now, assume a Goblin has come out; it has discovered you, and you have discovered it."

As Jier spoke, he raised his Bow and Arrow to aim: "My Arrow is already aimed at it now, but it isn't stupid and knows how to dodge, so it is swaying left and right, constantly adjusting its movement trajectory to try its best not to let me hit it. I also considered that I might miss, so I didn't release the arrow early, just letting the Arrow follow it virtually."

Jier held the Bow and Arrow, swaying left and right to imitate tracking the Goblin's trail. The three archers watched in wonder; even though there was nothing there, Jier the Knight could pretend to be so realistic. Indeed, those who can become Knights are all very formidable.

Jier then said: "Now, I have roughly seen the Goblin's movement ability and its ability to turn and dodge, so I am going to release the arrow. My Arrow is slightly ahead of its current position because the Goblin's mobility is not that great; with short arms and short legs, it doesn't run fast either."

Saying this, Jier let the Bow and Arrow lift slightly, then released the arrow. Whoosh—

The Arrow hit the main stem of a bush not far away, snapping the bush right in two.

"Finally, let me talk about the third shooting method. The first two were, respectively, looking at the enemy and then relying on experience to select the arrow's trajectory, and tracking the enemy, then having the Arrow overtake the enemy's position before shooting."

"The last one I want to talk about is a target coordinate method." Jier explained the meaning of the word coordinate, otherwise the three people with low cultural levels would not understand what he was about to express.

Jier raised the Bow and Arrow, not even pulling the string, just aiming virtually at the dummy directly in front of him: "As you can see, taking the center in front of me, which is this position right now, as the zero point of the coordinates, every distance moved to the direct right is one degree. Then returning to zero, every distance moved directly upward is one minute."

Jier aimed the Bow and Arrow directly in front of him again: "Returning to zero again, every distance moved to the direct left is negative one degree. Then returning to zero, every distance moved directly downward is negative one minute."

"Having said this, you understand, right?" Jier looked at the three and asked.

But the three archers were clearly unaccustomed to such an abstract shooting aiming method, except for the archer with night blindness who understood a little bit of the general meaning of what Jier said.

Jier was helpless and had to continue explaining, seeing how much they could understand based on their own intuition: "In this way, in my direct front, the entire field of vision is divided into all coordinate images that can be described with numbers."

Jier raised his hand and pointed at the dummy not far away: "In my field of vision coordinates, it is zero degrees, zero minutes. Once the coordinate position is known, even if I close my eyes, I can raise my hand and hit it."

After finishing, Jier actually closed his eyes, raised the Bow and Arrow, aimed it directly forward, placed the Arrow on the Bowstring, and pulled the bow slightly. This Short Bow was pulled to its limit, and then Jier released his thumb, and the Arrow shot out rapidly.

Whoosh—Thwack!!

It hit the center of the dummy's chest, even right next to another arrow that someone else had hit there before.

Jier opened his eyes, saw his masterpiece, and whistled: "How about that?"

But seeing the noncommittal expressions of the three archers, Jier got excited and pointed to a small tree on his right: "Look, that tree is at about three degrees, one point five minutes. I'm closing my eyes now."

As Jier spoke, he closed his eyes, muttered "three degrees, one point five minutes," and then adjusted his hands' position, roughly aiming at the location of the small tree.

Still closing his eyes, Jier said: "For a shot like this, in about three to five arrows, you can hit a target whose position you only know but cannot see."

After finishing, Jier pulled the bow and released the arrow.

Whoosh—Thwack!

Unexpectedly, although he said it would take three or five arrows, one arrow shot out and hit the trunk of the small tree directly! Because his force was not small, the Arrow kept shaking its tail after hitting the trunk, and the small tree also trembled after being hit.

This one shot truly opened the eyes of the three archers!

"This method can not only hit stationary targets, but once practiced to a fast level, you can also hit moving targets!" Jier bragged. He couldn't hit moving targets yet, but there was no harm in bragging first.

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