"Moreover, the president suspected that the recent deterioration of the forest environment stemmed from several latent mana radiation points and turbulent currents within the forest."
"To resolve those nodes, mages will need to step in."
As she spoke, Nia's large eyes warily swept over their surroundings.
Only after confirming that no one was nearby did she rise onto her toes, lean close to Lance's ear, cover her mouth with one hand, and whisper:
"Although there are still a few mages left in town, precious as treasures, their appearance fees are terrifyingly high, and their energy is limited."
"So the president set his sights on those students."
The girl's warm breath brushed against his ear, making Lance feel a little ticklish.
"To put it bluntly, they think the mages are too expensive. The Guild doesn't want to waste that money, so they'd rather make use of this cheap labor."
Without drawing attention to himself, Lance shifted half a step to the side and rubbed his ear. He lowered his voice as well and asked:
"All this... your vice president uncle told you?"
Nia's uncle was the vice president of the Adventurers' Guild, an old hand who had diligently worked in an administrative post for decades.
However, that uncle had nothing but criticism for Lance.
It was because he had caught Lance several times hiding away to play cards with his precious niece. In his eyes, Lance was practically a bastard who led good children astray.
So whenever Lance saw that uncle, he usually took a detour.
"Yep."
Completely oblivious to Lance's awkwardness, Nia nodded smugly.
"The president is a real shrewd calculator."
"For these interns, the Guild only needs to pay a tiny allowance and provide basic food and lodging. They don't even need to pay them a proper salary."
"Such amazing value for money."
"He also said that many of the students who could come here to intern had noble or wealthy merchant backgrounds, so they weren't short on money."
"Letting them intern here means not only do they not have to be paid, but to impress the people they like or their mentors, they'll even spend their own money freely in town."
"This way, not only can they resolve the forest's mana hazards, they can also boost Grayrock Town's economy. They might even use the partnership with Violet Academy to draw back the merchant caravans that got scared away."
After hearing all that, Lance could not help drawing in a sharp breath.
Damn.
That was way too ruthless.
Wasn't this exactly the usual trick big companies used to recruit interns in his previous life?
Under banners like "gain experience" and "receive certification," they treated college students like cheap, or even unpaid, workhorses.
Not only did they not have to pay wages, they also made the interns grateful to the company, thinking they had learned something.
He had not expected the ugly face of capitalism to be so consistent even in this other world.
"So underhanded..."
Lance sighed from the bottom of his heart.
Nia nodded forcefully in deep agreement.
"Exactly. That old man is rotten to the core."
After finishing a day of tedious copying work,
Lance returned to his lodging, hastily dealt with dinner using several pieces of hard black bread and cold water, then slipped into the Guild's private training room under cover of night.
The training room was brightly lit. Several Guild practice shortbows hung on the wall, while the quivers beside them were packed with white-feathered arrows.
Lance took down a shortbow and tested the tension of its string.
According to his current plan, he had to spend an unwavering hour practicing archery every day before pouring all his remaining energy into swordsmanship.
After all, his swordsmanship had already reached a critical point and could break through at any moment.
"Phew..."
Lance planted himself at the shooting position, took a deep breath, and his gaze instantly sharpened.
The straw target fifty meters away was only a vague outline beneath the dim light.
Yet he did not hesitate in the slightest.
Nock the arrow, draw the string, aim, release.
Twng!
The bowstring quivered.
The feathered arrow became an afterimage and struck precisely into the red section of the straw target.
This was the level of [Levin Archery] after reaching LV2 (Mastery).
At this distance, so long as there was no gale to interfere, he could maintain a considerably excellent hit rate.
He recalled how, when he had first started practicing, every arrow took him eight to ten seconds to adjust his posture for. He had hesitated endlessly while aiming and often missed the target entirely.
But now—
Lance's movements flowed like water, with no unnecessary delay.
From taking an arrow to firing it, the entire process had been steadily compressed to between three and five seconds.
Twng! Twng! Twng!
The dull yet rhythmic sound of bowstrings echoed through the training room.
As time passed, several distant straw targets were soon filled with densely packed arrows, like hedgehogs.
Lance had no choice but to stop, run over to pull out the arrows, clear the targets, and continue.
If any knowledgeable archer had witnessed this scene, their jaw would likely have dropped in shock.
Though this practice shortbow was not a powerful bow, it still had a draw weight of a full forty pounds.
An Ordinary adventurer, even a dedicated archer, would see their arm muscles begin trembling from lactic acid buildup after firing around forty consecutive arrows while maintaining a standard posture. Their form would distort, and their accuracy would disappear entirely.
But inside this training room, a terrifying scene was unfolding.
Lance mechanically repeated the shooting motion while silently counting in his mind.
"486..."
"631..."
"814..."
"965..."
As the final arrow left his fingers and once again produced a dull sound as it struck the target,
Lance finally lowered his arm.
Sweat dripped from his chin onto the floor, gathering into a small puddle.
He hung the shortbow back on the wall and reached out to touch its string.
After such intense continuous use, even the tough beast-tendon string had visibly loosened and become somewhat slack.
Yet the owner of the bow still looked as though nothing had happened.
Other than being drenched in sweat, his breathing remained steady and strong, and his arm muscles did not tremble in the slightest.
Lance picked up his water flask, took several gulps, and casually summoned the system panel.
[Levin Archery LV2 (75/240)]
Looking at that number, Lance calculated in his mind.
An hour of extreme training had increased his Proficiency by roughly 33 points.
Put another way, he had to fire around thirty arrows just to squeeze out a single point of Proficiency, like squeezing toothpaste from a tube.
"At this pace, my archery should break through to LV3 in another five days or so."
His gaze moved downward and landed on the swordsmanship progress bar, which was nearly full.
"If I'm lucky today, my swordsmanship should be able to reach LV4."
Lance wiped the sweat from his face and set himself a new plan.
"Once my swordsmanship breaks through, I can slightly adjust the time allocation over the next few days and give archery an extra hour."
"I'll try to raise my archery to level 3 within three days as well."
Looking at the steadily rising numbers, Lance frowned slightly instead.
"Still a little too slow."
That was only because no one else was present.
If the adventurers outside heard those thoughts, they would probably be so angry that they would want to hit him.
Progress that others measured in years had to be planned by the day for him.
And this insatiable bastard still thought it was too slow.
They would probably be unable to stop themselves from rushing over and strangling him.
Before you continue