64. Kurtz's alloy bows (2)

The four of us stood at the edge of the stone wall and looked up at the two bows hanging on the wall.

One was a slightly darker coloured ironwood bow, five centimetres shorter than a normal ironwood bow, but with two bands of black iron steel inlaid on either side of the back, on which were carved magical runes that looked like the word for wind, and a small fingernail-sized magic crystal inlaid in the middle of the band. The entire bowstring was made of a red-coloured beast's sinew, I couldn't tell what kind of material it was made of, except that I could feel the residual magic aura on it, but the magic crystal stone seemed to have no energy left, and only gave off a faint aura of magic elements.

The old orc reached out and took the ironwood bow off the stone wall, held it in his hand, turned around and took out an arrow from a nearby arrow pot, put it on the string and introduced it to us, "This ironwood bow was originally made by a master bow maker in the Dwarf Kingdom. to make it easier to use. This is an ironwood bow with inlaid steel bands on both sides. The two bands themselves increase the range of this ironwood bow by thirty percent, and the wind rune is engraved on the band, which allows the arrow to break armour."

As soon as he finished speaking, the old orc opened his bow and made a set of extremely smooth movements, only to hear a "boom" sound, the bowstring was slightly vibrating, I did not even see the movement of the arrow, I saw the round wooden target on the opposite side of the arrow has been inserted into the arrow, most of the arrow into the target, this can be said that the force is very strong.

While Kurtz was marvelling at this, the old orc sighed and placed the bow on the wooden table, "The designer of this bow wanted to use the steel band to increase the range of the bow, but the design did not consider that the inlaying of the steel band on the back of the wooden bow would affect the overall strength of the bow. However, because the process of inlaying the steel band hurt the bow itself, the range was barely increased by 30%, but the tension was increased by half of the original tension, so it was more than worth the loss. The wind runes engraved in the seal are the finishing touch. It gives the magic bow some value."

Kurtz took it in his hand and reluctantly tried to pull the string, but he could only pull it about halfway before it wouldn't budge. Kurtz blushed a little in shame and looked down at me and said, "Ja, I can't pull this bow."

I reassured him by saying, "It's not a very good bow in the first place, why do I think if you had that kind of arm strength, you would be able to pull an elven bow, it's not for you, it's too old. Don't you think that magic crystal is covered in cracks? I don't know how many times it can still be used!"

When I said that, Kiger also let out a breath and said, "I just felt that something was wrong, yes! This magic crystal has very little magic power left, that's why it's so dim.

When the old orc heard this, he sighed helplessly and said, "If it weren't for that, it would still be hidden in my bow shop and would have been bought by our orc hunters. Do you think there are many magical weapons?"

Seeing that we had no intention of buying it, the old orc once again unstrung the old ironwood bow and hung it up carefully, perhaps because we could see the flaws in the bow at first glance. I could even see the young green shoots sprouting from the vine on the back of the bow.

The old orc didn't sell himself short this time, nor was he demonstrating his skill to us, he just handed the bow to Kuz and said to Kuz, "This bow is made in the Zephyr, deep in the wild swamps of the southern part of the continent, by a master bow maker from the Lizardman tribe of the Swamp Clan, what makes it different is that the bow is alive! "

"Ah!" The first time I heard that there were living bows and arrows was all beyond our usual perception, causing several of us to let out a gasp of surprise. Upon closer inspection, I found that the reason this bow in Kuz's hand was said to be alive by the old orc was because there was still a hint of green in the naiti vine that made it, the vine was alive.

"The tension of this bow is a little less than the Naiti bow, because when he made this bow, the master bow maker made it a little smaller overall, he used the secret method of the swamp clan, even after making the Naiti vine into a bow, this vine is still alive, this bow has two major benefits, firstly, this Naiti vine is still growing, with time, the properties of this bow will improve. When the time comes, you won't be looking for ways to change your bow because the bow you take after your strength has increased doesn't match you. The fact that it can grow under the special potion is the most important feature of this bow. The second point is very insignificant to the first point, but a very practical benefit is that this bow has the ability to repair itself, even if it suffers some damage, it can recover as much as it can overnight if it is immersed in the special potion." The old orc's words struck a chord with me, such a good bow.

I think one of the biggest headaches for bowhunters is the care of their bows and arrows, and frankly the string and wooden back are both very delicate and the slightest carelessness can ruin a good bow. In the wilderness, there are inevitably dangerous situations and rainy days, and the worst of wooden bows can be deformed by fire and flooding, so the hardest thing about bow weapons is their maintenance.

I asked Kurtz with some interest, "Aziz, what do you think of this one?"

Kuz stood to one side and tested the bow's pull, but said bitterly, "This bow is too light to kill a demon antelope. It's not as strong as a normal naiti."

I was a bit displeased, thinking that the old man had only two broken bows on his wall, one was an old antique and the other was a young cabbage that could be used for eight or ten years before being bought and kept at home. I said to Kurtz, "These two bows are not really suitable for us, or we could go to the stalls in the free market and maybe we could find something suitable."

The old orc heard me say I was leaving and pondered for a moment before asking, "What kind of bows do you want to buy exactly?"

Kig said straight from the sidelines, "Preferably an alloy bow!"

"In that case, you guys wait first then."

After saying that, the old orc called downstairs a few times, calling the orc maiden up to sit with us for a while, while he himself went up the stairs from the side in fear. It was only then that I realised that the orc maiden's name was Sukamio, the daughter of an old orc named Su, and that the father and daughter had been running a bow shop in the town of Yemen for more than ten years, but now that the orcs in the wilderness were getting poorer and poorer, the originally prosperous bow business was getting worse and worse. According to Su Cameo, the shop had only sold three alloy bows this year, and three months ago old man Su had to sell all the high-grade bows and arrows in stock to a merchant from the Grimm Empire, so that there were only two unsold bows on the first floor.

A question suddenly popped into my head and I asked her out of the blue, "Is this Naiti bow yours?"

"Eh?" Sukamio didn't catch my broken orcish language with its Gurudin accent at first, and only after a moment did she respond with a small smile, "Yes, it was a gift from old man Su when I was nine years old, it wasn't even half the size it is now, but now it's this big and strong, I think it will be a good bow in a few years. "

I didn't know what had happened to the shop but it looked like business was so slow that they actually put their beloved bow up for sale, and when I saw my somewhat serious expression, Sukamio smiled sagely and said to me, "And what does it matter, no one's buying it anyway, are they?"

I asked Sukamio in wonder, "The orcs are hunting magic antelopes and gathering primary magical herbs in the wilderness, how can we be poorer and poorer when the area is so vast and rich?"

Sukamio said, "Some years ago, human caravans brought a lot of goods and traded away the livestock and herbs and ores of the orc tribes, and the orcs began to abandon their leather armour and wear silk, smash their clay pots and use fine porcelain instead, refuse to eat raw and numb cassava, and begin to They began to follow the example of the human nobility and ate sweet bread baked from fermented wheat flour. But none of these things were available on the Pai Plateau, and they were so expensive that they were shipped all the way from the Grimm Empire. In the old days, the beasts were self-sufficient, eating dried cassava meat and wearing leather armour and skirts. These precious metals were later turned into luxury items, such as carved magic candlesticks, beautiful high-necked porcelain vases, carved ivory beds and many other beautiful items.

Even so, the orcs were still able to maintain their livelihood, but three years ago the League of Orcs started a war against the Grey Dwarf bandits, which completely collapsed the fragile economy of the orcs. The orc tribal alliance then turned to the humans for help, borrowing food and medicine to sustain the entire campaign.

The straightforward nature of the orcs made them return every hide, sinew, herb, ore, livestock and precious beast they hunted in the wilderness to the humans to pay off their debts from the war. Because of this, business in Yemen town has also become bad, the merchants are having a hard time selling some of the high class weapons and armour, so over time, the stock of these high class items has become low, and some of them have even been out of stock for a long time.

We hadn't been talking to Sukamio for long when we saw the tall figure of Old Man Su appear from the entrance to the third floor, carrying a long wooden box in his hands. I could even see that the box had been covered in dust, only to be hastily wiped by Old Man Su, making the box with the original wood grain even more dilapidated, with mud marks on the wide wooden panel from the wet cloth wiping the dust away.

Old man Su walked over to the table, pushed aside the tea service on the tabletop and laid the long wooden chest flat on the table.

The contents did not seem to be heavy, but in Old Man Su's hands it seemed extraordinarily heavy. He was somewhat reluctant to say much, but simply opened the box in silence, and on opening it I was speechless to see a long mummy-like object, which I could see was in the shape of a bow. Old man Su picked up the bow and slowly unwrapped the tarpaulin.

"The alloy bow was once used by my father, and since his death I have kept it wrapped in the best oilcloth and sealed in this wooden box, my father once used this bow to hunt and kill a mutant hyena man, and it was also the reason he founded this bow shop, but it is not much use now, I can't even remember what he looked like ..." Old man Su murmured and untied the tarpaulin bag.

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