Accursed Wind

After a moment of confusion, something clicked in my mind.

"Is that something very difficult to do?" I asked with false curiosity.

"It is mildly surprising that an abject failure such as yourself can move mana at all." the System deadpanned.

I rolled my eyes in response.

"However, I must admit that being able to control mana with such little time given is somewhat… impressive." the System grudgingly conceded.

"But of course! The universe itself bows before my genius." I replied smugly.

"The universe would not be pleased to hear that," the System said dryly, "Moreover, it is merely because you can see the mana, otherwise you would have failed utterly to achieve anything," it countered.

"That's still part of my ability, so I am nevertheless a genius." I said with distinct pettiness.

"I temporarily granted you the ability to perceive mana." the System replied in a bemused tone.

"Yeah, yeah- wait what?" 

After a moment of speechless shock, the System said, "Don't tell me you really thought you could see the mana by yourself…"

I gave no reply, which answered the System's question, though not the answer it wanted.

"If you could see mana, why wouldn't you have noticed it before?" the System roared.

"So… there's mana on Earth?" I questioned, somewhat foolishly.

"Of course, you imbecile! Did you not read the scriptures on mana, or did the information not make it through your thick skull? Let me drill it into your head. Mana. Is. Everywhere. To think I had given you such a high wisdom value…"

Before I could start a debate over my intelligence, the System abruptly said, "Now, we will move on to the next part - weapon comprehension."

The specks of mana around me disappeared – or rather, I could not perceive them – and the bow and quiver of arrows I had chosen appeared before me, along with a single archery target.

"You will be given three hours to comprehend the essence of archery as well as you can, then your comprehension will be assessed and a value will be given based on your understanding." the System stated. 

"Your time begins… now."

____________________________________________

In no more than a few minutes, I noticed that something was… different from what I had been experiencing up until now. It took me a few moments to place it, but when I did, I immediately realized how much of a pickle I was in.

I could feel the wind.

Prior to the start of this test, I had never felt even the most subtle of breezes. However, I could distinctly feel a strong gust of northern wind blowing - if the south was to my back, that was. This meant that any arrow I shot toward the targets, which stood straight before me, would be impeded greatly by the wind.

"Wind is caused by a difference in temperature… and the rotation of the Earth, the Coriolis effect." I muttered to myself.

"The temperature has not changed at all since the mana comprehension tests began and I did not feel any wind then… so the wind must be artificial!" I concluded, eyes lighting up. 

I walked over and picked up the archery target, then moved them to where the wind was blowing toward, then stood a distance away, prepared to start target practice with the wind on my side.

I nocked an arrow and drew the bowstring back as far as I could. Held it in place for a few seconds as I attempted to judge the arrow's trajectory… then released it.

I watched as it carved a beautiful arc toward the target. By all rights, it would have struck the target (although admittedly nowhere close to the center), but suddenly it faltered and dipped to the right.

It took a moment for me to realize that the wind's direction had changed to an western one, which led to a shift in my arrow's flight trajectory. Mildly annoyed, I moved the targets once again and was about to pick an arrow from the quiver when the wind's direction changed once again.

Before I could even consider changing the target's position, it shifted again. With a scowl of frustration, I waited for the wind to change once again. There was little point in me constantly moving targets around when I could simply figure out the prearranged pattern these artificial winds followed and adjust accordingly before they changed.

So I started to wait for the pattern to emerge. I waited… waited… and I waited some more. At some point, confusion started to seep through my mind. Why hadn't a pattern emerged yet? It had been fifteen minutes already, and making a pattern of such length should have been unnecessary…

Slowly, doubt started to poison the conviction of my theory. Closing my eyes, I tried to calm myself down, to think about my next course of action. Suddenly, a blast of wind hit me from the back and my eyes opened of their own accord.

"This accursed wind…" I growled, closing my eyes once more as I prayed that it would stop distracting me.

Then my eyes flew open in shock. I twisted my head to look backward, only to find no visible change. Nevertheless, I continued staring intently in that direction.

"Could it be…?"