Improvising

"Surpassing God...?" 

The woman was visibly surprised to hear his end goal. If anyone else had said it then she could have dismissed it as empty words but knew that the man before her was dead serious.

She knew that Vincent always aimed for the impossible evident by his past actions. All of her friends had witnessed how Vincent's every accomplishment had shaken the entire world.

But she still looked skeptical, not because she doubted him but because she didn't know if the Gods really existed. There was no scientific proof that they existed.

Noticing her confusion, Vincent explained his words.

"I don't know whether the Gods really exist or not but I do know that they existed in the past. Even if they didn't exist I would still pursue that goal."

"They existed in the past?" Her confusion grew even further as she didn't hear any of this before.

"I don't have any proof to my statement but I deduced from some clues that there was a time in history when there were Gods present on this planet."

"Wait...a..second. So you are telling me that there used to be multiple Gods and they used to live on Earth?" She asked again in disbelief.

The existence of a single God is shocking enough for her but for there to be multiple Gods and all of them living on Earth was even more baffling to her.

But Vincent didn't wait for her to digest his words and continued to explain.

"Yeah, and what's more, it seems that they turned into Gods rather than being born as one."

"..."

She had gone completely silent at this point. She understood the meaning behind Vincent's words, that it was possible for a human to become a God.

"Wait a minute? Does that mean you want to become a God!!" She exclaimed. 

Her reaction was understandable though, because if Vincent really becomes a God then it would it would be the greatest turning point in the history of mankind. But Vincent immediately rejected her notion.

"No, why would I do that? Didn't I say that I would surpass the Gods?" 

At this point, she had already given up understanding Vincent's logic. How could a normal human being surpass a God? Although she looked exasperated, she was happy to see Vincent's usual attitude. 

"Well, let's leave it at that. We should return to the headquarters now, how about it?"

"....Okay."

******

A guy was making a complete fool of himself and the whole class was ridiculing him.

Hugh Jass.

There were no complex weapon arts for guns since it could be used in a simple way—Aim and shoot.

And this guy was simply taking out the twin handguns from the holsters on his waist, pulling their triggers, and putting them back in the holsters real quick.

That was his two-movement gun art— quick draw and shoot.

Seeing him, Lucas was reminded of the novel TNE. Even the main character in that novel used guns in a fantasy world.

The only difference was that while that character was super strong, Hugh Jass was pretty normal.

Finally, Lucas decided to start his own training since he had to at least pretend that he was making an effort, Lucas navigated across the concrete field, where cadets practiced various weapon arts provided by Leo Sensei.

The training field was vast and divided into three sections: an open area where cadets could practice freely, a dummy practice area where cadets could practice with close-range weapons like swords and spears, and a shooting range where cadets with long-range weapons could practice.

In addition to this, there's also a training hall which is an indoor and smaller version of this training field.

The academy had multiple training fields and gyms which cadets could access to train themselves.

Lucas hadn't used any of them and trained on his own since ordinary training wouldn't be of any use to him. And Lucas was pretty lazy when it came to training because of his sealed powers.

Upon arriving at the shooting range, Lucas noticed 40 lanes with circular targets positioned at the end of each lane. These targets had a set of concentric circles labeled on them.

He spotted Amelia and Anastasia, along with several other snipers from Class 1-C-8 and 1-A-1, using the targets to practice their weapon arts.

"She is really good even though Archery isn't her forte," Lucas mumbled to himself as he looked at Anastasia using a bow for the first time. He noticed that although she had considerable skill, her movements weren't that of archers.

Unlike archery where you had to have a straight back to use a bow, Anastasia had a slightly relaxed pose.

It looks like she is alert enough to change her fighting style anytime. Lucas guessed the reason for Anastasia's stance. Normal people wouldn't have noticed this but a person who had dedicated his life to practicing martial arts would have easily noticed this anomaly.

Leo should have already noticed it. Lucas knew that someone like Leo would have definitely noticed it.

Lucas stopped paying attention to her and went and stood a few meters away from one of the unoccupied target lanes. He then started reading the technique manual provided to him by Leo Kurogami.

The name of the archery technique he was about to practice was ‹Thousand Falling Lightning Needle Strike.›

This is definitely named by a Chinese person. 

Lucas literally cringed at the chuuni title of the manual but he couldn't do anything about it now.

It was a mid-grade Lvl. 1 weapon art. This archery art allows the user to infuse an arrow with mana. Upon release, the mana on the arrow will split and form into ten mana arrows and rain down upon the target.

The technique can be combined with an elemental spell too.

So why did it have 'thousand' and 'lightning' in its name? I will never get this Wuxia naming sense!

Archery techniques are not very strong. In fact, no long-range weapon art is strong enough when compared to the close-range weapon art.

A Lvl. 1 sword art will always be stronger than a Lvl. 1 archery art.

The reason Lucas didn't choose close combat was because he was afraid that he might accidentally kill someone lest he couldn't control his power.

He would much rather shoot from a distance and let all the other students do the fighting for him.

If the students turned out to be stronger than anticipated, then he could just simply switch fighting styles. After all, his arsenal had a variety of fighting methods.

He had mastery over almost every long-ranged, mid-ranged, and close-combat weapon there is and to top it all, he was capable of using a lot of powerful magic spells.

He was the perfect example of an unbeatable person. After all, there would be anyone who is as versatile as him. Even Leo Kurogami is not comparable to Lucas if they were to compare all of their techniques.

"Haa, let's start practicing." An extended sigh escaped Lucas's lips as he stretched and loosened his body.

Opening the first page of the technique manual in his hand, he started following exactly what was written on it step by step.

*****

55 minutes later…

Ding—!

[Your knowledge about your profession has increased.

Techniques→ Thousand Falling Lightning Needle Strike (Lvl. 1)

Progress: [100%]]

Finally, after spending around 55 minutes on it, the status notification popped up showing his progress.

The technique was quite simple and he didn't need that much time to master it to perfection.

This status screen is quite useful. Lucas thought to himself as he looked at the notification. After all, this status screen presented information about oneself, such as their name, race, profession/skills, magic potential, etc.

But this status screen wasn't something that existed in this from the start. Seven centuries ago, when mana started flowing on Earth, the people who could wield it started seeing a translucent screen.

That translucent screen presented them with information about themselves, such as their name

It also provided them with a numerical representation of their physical and mental condition like attack, defense, charm, and intelligence.

Over the years, humans started calling it 'Status Screen.'

The dwarves simply called it 'Universal Window.'

And the elves and vampires called it 'Akashic Records.'

And with the arrival of the status screen, everyone was able to decipher what area they had to work on in order to improve and grow stronger.

And what's more, only the owner can see their status screen and no one else. And there are no methods to bypass this rule either.

Over the years, humanity was able to develop a similar measuring method to that of the status screen and its accuracy was quite good but that was it. 

Obviously, this is the handiwork of a God. But I wonder which one it is.

After taking a short breather, Lucas resumed training for one last time.

He raised my bow and knocked an arrow on the string. Drawing magical energy from his mana core, he coated the arrow with a thin layer of mana before taking aim.

And the arrow was enveloped in a dark azure-blue hue. So much so that the arrow is barely visible beyond the color.

Pulling back the bowstring, Lucas let out a deep breath.

"Fuuuu"

Swoosh—!

Tak—!

As soon as he released his grip from the bowstring, the arrow shot forward which soon multiplied into multiple arrows numbering hundreds and struck the center of the target.

Now it is a lot closer to its name.

No matter how indifferent Lucas was, he was still irked by the notion that he was using a technique with such a cheesy name. And in an effort to change it, Lucas spent most of his time improving the technique.

This is the reason it had taken him nearly an hour to learn such a basic technique. Its because he was busy improvising it rather than learning it as it is.

If he had performed the technique as per the manual, the mana coated on his arrow would have split into ten mana darts, creating the illusion that the arrow had multiplied.

If Leo had seen what Lucas did, then he would have surely flipped over and asked Lucas to teach him that technique. But sadly for him, no one had seen Lucas using this technique.

While most of the people were too concentrated on learning, others simply didn't pay attention to someone as weak as Lucas.

Moreover, the arrows multiplied were merely illusions and did not produce any sound as they vanished after the original arrow struck its target.

Due to these reasons, no one noticed the feat that Lucas accomplished. 

–"What did you say to me?!"

Suddenly, the fierce shouting of a young man grabbed Lucas's attention as he was taking a break.

He turned his head around to see the source of the disturbance and saw a muscular black youth towering over a smaller boy with bright green hair and matching eyes, blocking his path with anger in his eyes.

Instantly, a small smile appeared on Lucas's face as he could finally see some action after all this time.