27 Shopping

That night, John finished his first movement class and couldn't believe how sore his muscles were.

"God, I haven't worked that hard ever." Mike groaned as he shuffled along behind John and Steven. It was miraculous how quickly he'd recovered. Apparently, the school had been so worried about what'd happened that they'd invited a master healer from the city who'd rushed over as soon as he'd heard and worked on everyone. Even those who'd lost limbs could be seen in classes today as if nothing had ever happened.

"No kidding, what're you guys up to?" Steven asked.

"I'm getting food and sleeping." Mike said, more worn out than the others because he hadn't begun cultivating yet.

"I'm headed to the Maker's Club, the reward for killing the Panther finally came in and I have enough for those pistols I've had my eyes on. I also need to look into buying a basic dual pistol manual, I finally managed to qualify last night."

"Damn, already?!?!" Mike asked, his tiredness forgotten in his surprise.

"Yeah, I went into some kind of zone last night and stayed in the firing range for 8 hours last night. Thank god we got free access to the facilities as a reward for warning the school in time to save everyone or I would've been broke."

"What?!?!" The other two looked at each other in surprise.

"No one told you? I guess I didn't know either until the computer at the firing range told me."

Shocked to the core, Mike said, "I've gotta go, if that's true then I can use the gunsmithing simulator all night. I'll have the ability to make my rifle by the weekend!"

Steven didn't even bother to say anything, sprinting back into the battle training building and heading for the hand to hand combat training rooms.

"Guess they all wanted to train some more?" John asked no one in particular before shrugging it off and making his way to the Maker's Club. Stepping inside, John headed straight for the Spirit Pistol's section. He was just about to turn the corner when he heard someone yell.

"John?" Chris appeared around the corner, "I thought that was you, how're you doing?"

"Great, you got my text?"

"Of course! I set them aside, come check them out." Chris said, grabbing John's arm and leading him to a back room. There, sitting on top of a workbench where his pistols, but after examining them closer they seem to have been changed slightly.

"What's up with these?" John asked in surprise.

"Well, I was about to get in trouble for answering a text at work before I told my supervisor what it was about. A master gunsmith was walking by when he heard, and apparently his apprentice was saved by Mr. Carter because of you so he demanded to see what you were buying. He made a couple changes to it so now if you drop your blood they'll bind to you permanently. It's not like the tool cultivator's who gain the ability to merge with their guns, but more like a taming contract with a spirit tool. The master insisted on paying for them too, said that it was the least he could do."

"Damn, at this rate I'm going to get spoiled." John said, staring longingly at the guns.

"Go ahead, claim them before someone hears about it. They're completely worthless to anyone after they've been claimed but before that they're priceless." Chris said with a giant grin on his face.

Not willing to argue with that, John rushed forwards and used a small knife to cut his index finger on his right hand. Dripping it onto a gun, he felt an instant connection to it before the gun melted in his palm leaving a tattoo behind.

"Use your other hand for the other gun." Chris said.

Nodding, John did so and laughed as it too disappeared.

"You're a lucky bastard." Chris said with a bit of envy on his face, "Spirit bonded weapons are the only type allowed to be carried by freshman inside the school grounds."

John couldn't help the grin that split his face, "Hey, the way my life's been going recently I'll need them."

Chris laughed at that, "Yeah, you guys sure have gotten into a lot of trouble. How's Mike?"

"It's like nothing ever happened. You should really hang out with us sometime, I heard they're going to reopen the barrier soon and we can always use a big guy like you. I bet you'd make a damned good tank." John said.

Chris shook his head with a laugh, "Maybe next semester. I'm a Body Cultivator, and until I reach a certain level I'm pretty much useless."

"Don't say that, we can always use you as bait." John said half jokingly.

Shaking his head at John's audacity, Chris decided to change the subject. "Anything else you're looking for today?"

"Yeah, I just finished my Basic Qualifications for Dual Pistols so I need to find a decent technique to continue training. The AI at the shooting range said I could buy techniques here."

"Of course, let me show you."

John followed behind Chris as they walked through several aisles and into a completely different store. "They put this in here for convenience since we already had the main store. The basic manuals are over there." Chris said as he pointed to a large area with a few people browsing.

"Thanks for the help, seriously you should join us sometime." John said.

"I'll think about it, gotta get back to work." Chris said with a smile and a wave before he walked away.

As soon as Chris left, John rushed over to the basic techniques section like a starving wolf after an injured bunny... Luckily no one was in his way, otherwise who knows how much damage he may have caused.

Looking at the gigantic display, he noticed that every few feet a sign would be hung over the techniques saying, "Basic Hand to Hand." or "Basic Swordsmanship." Finally finding Basic Marksmanship, John spent the next half hour searching through the books until he found two perfect techniques for himself.

'Soul Bullets.' - 17,000 Credits

'A technique that allows the user to manipulate his Soul Energy to create a bullet that ignores physical defenses to attack the soul. Incredibly powerful against enemies bellow the Soul Formation Realm and within a few levels of the user. After the Soul Formation Realm, it will require more powerful and refined techniques to do serious soul damage.'

'Basic Dual Pistols' - 1,000 Credits

'A Special training manual that teaches you to more proficiently use Dual Pistol's. Greatly increases accuracy, firing speed, and introduces the concept of dual processing. Mastering this is a prerequisite for Apprentice Level Dual Pistol techniques.'

John pulled out his phone, and saw he had 30,000 credits. Apparently, the Night Rush Panther was worth nearly 90,000 credits so after it'd been split the three of them got a ton. Checking the leader boards, John smiled seeing that Steven and he were tied for first place in year one with Mike still down 300. 'Too bad he is going to start cultivating soon, it was fun holding that over his head for so long.'

Smiling, John headed over to the counter to pay for the two manuals. Behind the counter stood a middle-aged woman with a nice smile and sparkling eyes. "Well, you certainly made a lot of credits if you can afford this." She said.

"Yeah, I meant to ask about that. Why are Basic level training manuals so damned expensive?"

"They're meant for second year students, and only the top of the class are supposed to buy these types of manuals before the third year." The lady motioned to the Soul Bullets manual.

"Ahh, that makes more sense. " John said with a smile, "Actually, I was wondering what levels of training there are. I noticed that you need to complete Basic Dual Pistols to train in Apprentice level techniques?"

The woman continued to smile as she finished ringing up the manuals and charged John's account. He groaned as he saw it drop by 18,000 points and remembered how damned hard it was to earn those.

"Well, you start off as a Novice, then you begin doing Basic level training." The woman said as she put the two manuals in a paper bag and handed them over to John, "After that come Apprentice, then Journeymen, Master, and Grandmaster. After Grandmaster you have to create your own path, but those few who manage to take a technique that far are incredibly powerful!"

"Thanks!" John said, a giant smile on his face. This was the first time that he'd learned anything about how one might create their own Dao. He'd heard it was the only way to surpass the Soul Formation Realm, but had no idea how that was done before now.