Combat training(1)

The day unfolded, lessons blending into one another, the ebb and flow of academia shaping the experience of the students.

As I listened to the classes, the weight of Professor Joshua's summons lingered in the back of my mind, but I was determined to face whatever lay ahead.

As the final bell of the day rang, signifying the end of classes, I gathered my belongings and made my way towards Professor Joshua's office.

With each step, a mix of apprehension and curiosity coursed through my veins.

Entering the office, Eren found Professor Joshua seated behind his desk, his gaze fixed upon them. The room was adorned with shelves filled with books, the knowledge and wisdom contained within them seeming to permeate the very air.

"Eren Pendragon, have a seat," Professor Joshua said, his voice carrying a hint of intrigue.

I complied, settling into the chair opposite the professor. The weight of the moment hung in the air, the anticipation almost tangible. It made me more nervous.

Professor Joshua leaned forward, his piercing gaze locked with mine.

"I must admit, your actions today caught my attention."

What the hell?

"To be able to disarm the opponent barehanded, even displaying the skill and composure... It is a rare talent among freshmen."

My heart skipped a beat, unsure of how to interpret the professor's words. Was it praise or a prelude to a reprimand?

His ever serious expression further increased the confusion.

"But whatever may be the case, fighting inside the academy was restrict not allowed and you realize you just broke that rule right?"

There it is! I don't know what punishment he gives but let's prepare for it.

"As a punishment, you will accompany me in the morning training before the class and evening training after the classes for a month."

"....?"

That's it? Wasn't professor Joshua supposed to be more strict?

"Do you understand?"

"Huh? Yes, Professor, I accept the punishment."

I don't know what was happening but I accepted it happily.

Despite the many rumors, Instructor Joshua was a seven star mage. There are many things I could learn from him. It was even a rare chance.

"Then I will see you 3:00 AM in the morning tomorrow."

"Huh?"

"You can go back now."

Wasn't the training supposed to be in morning? 3:00 AM? When the f*ck is 3:00 AM considered as morning?

Eren didn't know it at this point of time that his life is going to get into a hard track from tomorrow.

***

After having a quick refreshment and finishing the nature's call, I got out of my room.

I still felt depresses thinking about what happened in professor Joshua's office earlier. I thought I could live my academic days with peace, but that seemed impossible now with Professor Joshua paying attention to me.

'Fuck! this is so frustrating!'

The magic engineered handgun in my pocket rattled uncomfortably, but I couldn't do anything about it without a holster.

The only thing that I could think of doing to get out this frustration was training! And my destination was the shooting range.

Located east of dorm 1, the shooting range was a dome shaped building consisting of 20 training rooms. The shooting range was mostly used by archers who uses bow as that was the most common choice, but it wouldn't be a problem to train with a gun too.

The targets in the range were oddly distributed around where the sharpshooter would stand. This was because unlike bullets, magic arrows could easily change their trajectory.

<Rank 248, Eren Pendragon, confirmed.>

When held the academic ID card provided by the academy against the shooting range's entrance, my name along with the entrance exam ranking was displayed on the projector that was placed near it.

Even though I have seen it in my past life, it still amazed me, the recognition magic cast on the card was just that complex and incredible.

Feeling a bit excited, I walked inside.

Past the wide circular lobby, there were ten doors evenly separated from each other. I once again held up my Id against one of them.

<Rank 248, Eren Pendragon, confirmed.>

The door opened.

The shooting range looked simple. At the center of the 130-square-meter circular space was a scaffolding for the shooter. I walked towards the center.

Even there was a projector which allowed the trainer to set the conditions for their training.

<Initializing targets. Choose the number of targets you want.>

<You must choose at least 2 and can choose at most 20.>

It was displayed on the projector.

"Ten."

I entered the number on projector and suddenly targets began to appear.

I looked at the targets surrounding me. A monster that was barely considered a monster, a green-wolf. They were similar to dogs everyone knew, the only difference being that they were a bit bigger.

But the targets here were only projections that were created with magic.

<Choose your training difficulty.>

<You can choose from stage 1 to stage 9.>

Higher level naturally meant targets moved quicker. At stage 9, the targets even attacked. Although the attacks just passed through since they were just projections.

"Stage 4."

First, I set the difficulty to stage 4 and loaded my magic bullets.

If I was quite skilled in handling magic power in my past life, so I should be able to compress magic power into bullets without having to get physical bullets, but the problem was that the current me didn't have such talents or the amount of mana.

And even if I could do such a thing, using a bow was much more destructive and efficient.

"Start."

First, I notified the projection to start and aimed my gun at the leftmost target.

The slowly moving green-wolf seemed to programmed to sense the attacker as it began to speed up. It scuttled around without a set movement pattern, but I could see its trajectory. It was like I was seeing an afterimage, but of its future path.

Predicting its movement by a step, I pulled the trigger.

A blue flare shot up from the barrel. There was no loud noise as the silent magic circle instilled on the gun reduced the sound to very minimal.

Leaving the barrel silently, the bullet should pierce the green-wolf.

I didn't bother to check the result with my eyes. The moment the bullet went out, I moved on to the next target and fired. My hand moved on its own.

One, two, three, four... ten.

The trigger was pulled ten times, and the green-wolf projections that were struck scattered into particles of mana.

Only two targets survived.

"Oho."

I was quite impressed.

I was very proficient at using bows in my past life, but I didn't think that my aim would be this good.

<Your training ended. Elapsed time: 32.18 seconds. Sharpshooting score: 80/100>

In just 32.18 seconds.

"... This is pretty fun."

The playful kid inside me was awakened as I started to kill the green-wolfs again and again.

---***---