Second Week's Challenge Run (3)
The stage was set — Seo Ye-in shrouded in her optical camouflage ghillie suit, with the Beheader Goblin and me squared off against each other.
"Grrrk……"
As the Beheader let a low growl rumble out like a threat, the ordinary goblins knew better than to interfere, hanging well back and watching warily from a distance.
The instant the creature kicked off the ground and raised its rusted cleaver to swing—
Wham—!
A magic bullet came flying from out of nowhere and slammed dead center into the space between its brows. Its face caved in, head snapping sharply back.
Yet the Beheader swung its head right back into position without breaking its stance. Tough bastard.
Its eyeballs rolled about, then locked onto the spot the shot had come from.
"Mister, don't look away. Eyes over here."
My job was to keep its attention fixed on me so Seo Ye-in could safely pick at its weak points.
I charged the Beheader, swinging the Staff of Earth (as a club, that is), while casting Hummingbird at the same time. Staff and Hummingbird bore down on the creature from both sides.
"Grrrk!"
The Beheader's form blurred in place and split in two, as if it had cast a clone technique. Its cleaver split in two as well, each half aiming to cut down the staff and the Hummingbird at once.
It was a boss monster, after all — naturally it knew a skill or two.
Actually, this works in my favor.
I'd only planned on landing one of the two attacks anyway, so having it split its strength like this was a gift.
I recalled the staff at the last moment, easing back a step, and took control of the Hummingbird instead.
Crackle—!
As if to say this much paralysis was nothing, the Beheader swung its cleaver at me. I arched my body backward and the rusted blade skimmed past. I dove back in and slammed the staff into its flank, but it barely seemed to register.
The thing was wrapped in physical-attribute skills and traits, and I'd struck it with nothing but raw mana — of course the damage didn't land.
Wham—!
Seo Ye-in's second magic bullet struck home. Another clean hit to the face.
Even with its head snapped back, the creature's bulging eyes stared dead ahead at the direction the bullet had flown from.
"I told you not to look away."
"GRAAAH—!"
I stretched out the staff and gave the spot it had just taken the bullet a light tap, and the Beheader properly saw red, charging straight at me. It was so furious that blade-qi came streaming off its cleaver in ribbons.
I activated [Thief's Step] and threaded my steps between its onslaught, holding a hair's-breadth of distance.
Wham—!
Another magic bullet hammered into the Beheader Goblin's skull.
For a moment, the creature seemed to weigh whether to deal with me or go after Seo Ye-in.
I was the one enraging it, but Seo Ye-in was the one posing the actual threat.
It must have settled on the latter first, because it bent both legs and coiled low in place. It looked like it meant to leap a long way.
"You're not going anywhere."
Amplification activated.
Hummingbird rank increased. (E → C)
Crackle-crackle-crack!
Taking the C-rank Hummingbird square in the body, the Beheader's movements froze solid.
Wham—!
The fourth magic bullet buried itself in its face, and the Beheader began to stagger, no longer able to hold itself upright.
The creature scraped together what mana it had left, poured it into the cleaver, and hurled the blade with all its might toward Seo Ye-in's hiding spot.
The flying cleaver shredded the whole area without mercy.
KRAK-KRAK-KRAK-KRACK!
Swamp and sodden ground alike were torn up in a frenzy. The air writhed and rippled, and Seo Ye-in's figure came into view.
Even amid all that chaos, she stood rooted to her spot without so much as a twitch, rifle still trained on target.
Wham—!
The fifth shot found its mark.
The Beheader Goblin buckled one leg, then dropped fully onto both knees.
"Grr…… rk……"
And at last it crumpled to the ground. Its body broke apart into ash and scattered on the wind.
"Got him. Let's go."
"Mm."
We took off running again. The rifle snapped back into a pair of pistols in an instant, spitting blue fire.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
"Kerrk? Kek!"
"Kek-kek??"
With the boss monster dead, the goblins scattered in confusion. Some blocked our path; others bolted outright or dove headlong into the swamp mire.
I let Seo Ye-in finish off whatever she could take down in passing, fended off only the ones charging straight at us, and made a beeline for the totem.
Once we'd closed the distance enough, Seo Ye-in rained magic-gun fire and blasted the totem to pieces.
Time Remaining: 0:18
+ Goblins Slain: 11
+ Formidable Foe Slain: +120
——————————
Time Bonus: 2:29 = 149 pts
+ Clear Bonus: 500 pts
——————————
Total Score: 649
We had moved with more snap than on our first attempt, but bringing down the Beheader Goblin ate up a good chunk of time, so the total came out about the same. The goblin tally was low, too, since we'd only taken out the ones in our path as we went.
Even so, this run netted us a full 120 extra seconds for felling the [Formidable Foe] — more than a hundred points up from the first attempt.
"We shaved off quite a bit. I bet we can trim it further."
"……"
Seo Ye-in nodded without a word. But somewhere in that expressionless face, a faint dissatisfaction had surfaced.
I figured out why at once, but it wasn't my place to bring it up first. So I feigned ignorance and asked.
"What is it?"
"……"
Seo Ye-in hesitated, opening her mouth only to close it again. I waited her out with patience, and at last she found her voice.
"……So, um…"
"Yeah?"
"…Could you give me another Magic Bullet lesson?"
Apparently, she felt her Magic Bullet was falling short.
It was true the Beheader Goblin's toughness had been extraordinary. For a close-combat boss monster, being built solid was only to be expected.
Even so, the fact that it had taken five rifle shots to finish the thing clearly didn't sit right with her.
And those weren't just any five shots — five shots, each one dead on a vital point.
Its defenses weren't even anything special. I had marked it perfectly, leaving its openings wide exposed.
It was effectively the same as firing point-blank at a target, and it had still taken that long — no wonder she'd concluded that this wouldn't do.
She's got a surprisingly fierce competitive streak, doesn't she.
The [Formidable Foe] mechanism was originally put there to give freshmen a rude awakening — to phrase it more delicately, to make them feel the wall. To let them taste frustration at least once.
Seo Ye-in had indeed felt that wall facing the [Formidable Foe], but far from despairing, she had immediately caught fire with the will to climb over it — to grow.
Which was more than fine by me. Teaching is its own reward when the one learning has the drive.
"Then let's wrap up today's run here and head to the Training Center?"
"Yeah. Let's."
The Training Center. Today we settled into a private shooting range rather than the Mana Cultivation Room — one that could summon any obstacle a shooting drill called for.
"The third Magic Bullet special lesson will now begin."
"Ooh—"
Seo Ye-in welcomed it with silent applause.
"First, let's see how far you've come. Your [Magic Bullet] is E-rank at the moment, right?"
"Mm."
"How much longer do you think you'll need to reach D-rank?"
She'd surely put in solo practice since the last Magic Bullet lesson. Seo Ye-in sank into thought for a moment, then spoke.
"…Tonight? I'm almost there."
"That's quick. Good — keep that going on your own time. Today, we're going to learn a new skill."
"Okay."
I planted a sizable chunk of wood as a target a short distance away. In one hand I formed a Magic Bullet; with the other, I curled my thumb and index finger into the shape of a finger-flick.
"Let's say this is the magic gun."
I wedged the Magic Bullet into the flick, aimed at the wood chunk, and snapped my finger. The bullet drifted out with no force behind it, gave the chunk a feeble tap, and rolled away across the floor.
"That's where you are right now. Your Magic Bullet is beyond reproach, and your magic gun is quality gear — but you're still only using it as a tool."
For a swordsman, it would be like owning a superbly sharp masterwork blade and knowing all the forms — but only ever swinging it. To grow stronger, you had to step up from there. After all, people say a swordsman comes to regard the sword as part of his own body, that the sword is an extension of the arm, don't they?
The bond between a gunslinger and the magic gun was little different.
"Watch again."
I formed the flick once more and loaded the bullet. This time, keeping the wood chunk in my sights, I concentrated mana into my index finger and launched it off together with the Magic Bullet.
Snap!
The flight speed, the crack of it — everything was different from the ground up. The wood chunk swayed back and forth under the shock.
"It's a skill called [Ejection]. Let's master it."
Gather mana in the hand, then focus it into the part that would send it flying — the index finger. Then, timed to the snap of that finger, release the mana along with it. The principle was close to how martial artists launch their finger-wind strikes.
"……"
Seo Ye-in awkwardly formed the flick. She wedged a Magic Bullet between thumb and index finger, concentrated her mana, and snapped.
Ting.
The Magic Bullet arced off in a huge parabola and vanished toward some random spot. It wasn't so much bad aim as unfamiliarity with the flicking motion itself.
I had to rework the training on the spot. As it stood, she was going to get stuck at the finger-flick — a step that didn't even warrant practice.
"…Let's try it without the Magic Bullet. If you can send the mana flying on its own, that counts as a success."
Seo Ye-in diligently flicked her fingers at empty air. Gathering mana into her index finger took only a handful of tries, but the release gave her some trouble. Sometimes the mana still clung to her fingertip after the snap; other times it flew a beat too early.
The release mattered, but so did the timing. In the end, it was a skill meant to be used in the same instant the magic gun fired.
Thock.
After her round of trial and error, a faint clump of mana finally flicked off Seo Ye-in's fingertip and grazed the wood chunk. More mana was left pooled in her index finger than she'd actually launched, but even with that factored in, her pace was remarkably fast.
I nodded.
"You're doing well. Keep it up just like that."
"Okay."
By evening, the training had progressed even further. She could now send mana flying with a flick of the fingers without much difficulty.
From that point on, I had her practice with her own magic gun. Clear this stage, and the [Ejection] skill would be granted; after that, we'd move on to D-rank Magic Bullet.
"By the way — what should we do about dinner?"
"……?"
Seo Ye-in's attitude turned noncommittal. She was in the thick of training and wanted to keep her focus, but skipping the meal outright would leave her stomach rumbling. Caught between the two, she could do neither.
Left without a choice, I volunteered to run the errand myself.
"I'll just stop by the cafeteria and pick up a few things to eat."
"Thank you."
Seo Ye-in held out her own card, telling me to settle the bill with it — a thick, weighty black card gleaming with a dark luster.
At the cafeteria, I gathered up bread of every variety — chocolate, sausage, cream puff, muffin, croquette… That should be plenty to keep us going. I grabbed a few drinks as well and was turning to leave when—
"Hiya!"
My eyes met Han So-mi's, seated at a table over her meal. From the way she beamed and waved, she apparently wasn't holding a grudge over the train incident anymore.
For my part, I bore her no real ill will either. When you got down to it, she'd just been doing her job as Disciplinary Committee, and I was the one breaking the rules. Besides, as classmates in Class 1-3, it couldn't hurt to trade greetings now and then — so I waved back.
"……?"
At Han So-mi's wave, Song Cheon-hye across the table turned her head, as if to verify just who was being greeted. She had a bite of cake in her mouth and a blissful smile spread across her whole face — but the instant she spotted me, she snapped her expression back into order.
There was really no need to look that stern, was there?
In any case, since I was already greeting people, I gave Song Cheon-hye a token wave as well and started on my way —
"Hey! Excuse me!"
Song Cheon-hye came toward me.
"What is it?"
"That is… please show me your hand."