Marksmanship

Nova was sent running around the training grounds while Reagan chased after him.

『You know, there is a tournament coming up soon.』[Reagan]

『Really? What kind?』[Nova]

Nova turned around and pulled the trigger on his new gun a few times, shooting at Reagan with a couple of weak mana blasts.

Reagan continued running past, as all the bullets missed.

『Ah, what the heck?! Why is it so hard to aim with this thing?!』[Nova]

『A team class tournament. Two weeks from now. You think you'd be able to beat the other 7 classes?』[Reagan]

He jumped forward, appearing in front of Nova, causing Nova to lose balance and fall.

『...I think I'd need some work… but… I don't think I've ever fought cooperatively with a team before.』[Nova]

『Yeah… that'll be our subject for the next two weeks then. You can all use your summoned and tamed beasts too, so remind them to bring their partners.』[Reagan]

He knelt down in front of Nova.

『After that is the mid-term, which is another team tournament. That one is free-form teams, though.』[Reagan]

Nova had a puzzled look on his face as he thought about the spilling of that information.

『...Are you really allowed to tell me about that one?』[Nova]

Reagan stayed silent for a bit before giving a thumbs up and a smug smile.

『...It's worth class points.』[Reagan]

Nova could do nothing but reciprocate with a thumbs up.

『Anyways, I'd like it if you could support your classmates. I'll teach you how to properly use the gun, then you can take the license test for owning a gun after I'm done today.』[Reagan]

Nova pulled himself from the floor while still talking to Reagan, who also stood up.

『You have to own a license?』[Nova]

『For all non-conjured weapons, you must own a license. All smiths have the ability to give out licenses to own a weapon, but you have to take a written and practical exam for the ability to use the weapons.』[Reagan]

Reagan took out a gun of his own, that was nearly identical, save for some scratches and dents.

『Look at this circle on the back.』[Reagan]

He pointed at the interface on his gun.

『You know that trick to draw magic circles, right? If you can draw one on your thumb, you can "imbue" the next shot with a similar property.』[Reagan]

He showed Nova a tiny magic circle on his thumb, before putting it onto the blank circle.

After lifting it, the magical circle was on the interface instead of his thumb.

『There. It's stored into the gun now.』[Reagan]

He then pointed at the sky with the gun.

『This one is a Wave spell.』[Reagan]

Upon pulling the trigger, hundreds of tiny mana beams burst out of the gun, towards the sky.

『Woah…! Kind of like a shotgun!』[Nova]

He lowered the gun, before putting his hand on top of the barrel of the gun.

『Yeah. It's extremely versatile, but I don't really use it, because I'd rather have my full attention on using my main weapon.』[Reagan]

He slid the barrel back, causing the gun to disappear into his hand.

『What?! Where did it go?!』[Nova]

Reagan opened up the palm of his hand revealing a tiny pin.

『Standard issue feature. Pull the top of the slide back, and it will turn into a small pin. You can put it into your storage tool, or put it on your sleeve for easy access. You can just use mana to manifest it.』[Reagan]

Nova tried the same thing, causing the pin to appear on his sleeve.

『There. Easy access.』[Reagan]

Reagan looked up somewhere at the sky.

『Let's do a little bit of marksmanship training, then.』[Reagan]

Nova nodded and put a little mana into the pin, causing it to reappear in his left hand.

『Genesis! Manifest mana formation "Marksmanship"!』[Reagan]

The cityscape melted downwards, dissolving into lights once more.

Afterwards, a brightly lit stadium with many different targets appeared.

『Okay. See that target over there?』[Reagan]

He pointed at a red and white target about 100 meters away.

『...Wait, what?』[Nova]

『Well, contrary to normal projectiles, mana has a slight rise factor, so it would be something new to get used to.』[Reagan]

『...I haven't noticed anything…?』[Nova]

He lifted his gun with his left hand and aimed it at the target before pulling the trigger.

The projectile, true to Reagan's word, rose several feet above the target and completely missed, dissolving in midair.

『...If you put more mana, it will straighten out a bit.』[Reagan]

Nova was putting a marginal amount of mana into the gun, to the point that he could have probably used the gun for a full hour before getting tired.

But now, he put an Etoile sized amount of mana into the gun… no, he imagined that he WAS using Etoile, with the gun.

『...It's the same concept… right?』[Nova]

Aiming the same way he had before, he once more, pressed the trigger.

This time, a solid beam of mana blasted forth at the target before making contact with it directly.

『Wait…! Impossible!』[Reagan]

The beam persisted for a couple of seconds before the target itself broke, and the laser went clean through.

After it went through, the beam dissipated.

『...What was that…?』[Nova]

Reagan grabbed Nova by the ear and pulled up slightly, causing pain to him.

『Nova…!』[Reagan]

『Ow, ow, ow! What?!』[Nova]

『Do you know a spell called "Etoile"?!』[Reagan]

『Yes! Why?!』[Nova]

He let go of Nova's ear.

『...That's an original spell created by someone I know. He once used a gun, and it ended up acting as a focus and amplifier, causing similar results. I don't know where you learned it, but… tone down on the mana output if you use that. ONLY use it… when you aren't training. You won't gain anything from training your marksmanship otherwise.』[Reagan]

He pushed Nova forward, lightly.

『Go back to training, but… Don't visualize it with Etoile. Using a beam versus an actual projectile doesn't work the same.』[Reagan]

Nova nodded and raised his gun up at a new target, focusing to the point of being oblivious to all.

『...Senior… did you… give this student one of your original spells…?』[Reagan]

Nova pulled the trigger a few times, with all of them landing somewhere on another target.

Reagan's mouth fell agape as Nova continued to fire.

『...And… he might be a prodigy at using a gun... 』[Reagan]

As Nova kept firing, not a single one missed the target, despite them not landing on the bullseye.

『...Etoile was deemed useless for anything except using a gun… so what else would it be used for…?』[Reagan]

After another volley of shots, Nova suddenly used both his hands for the gun.

Reagan looked at this quizzically before speaking up.

『...I thought you were training to use it with your lef-』[Reagan]

Nova fired off several shots that seemed to be off the mark.

As they travelled, Nova seemed to concentrate on the individual bullets travelling.

Out of nowhere, they suddenly curved and hit the target, right on bullseye.

Reagan stood in shock as Nova turned around with a smile on his face, pointing at the target.

『...I did it!』[Nova]

『...Yeah… you did...』[Reagan]

Nova turned the gun back into a pin and put it on his sleeve.

『Can we go to take the exam yet?!』[Nova]

『...I suppose we can, yes.』[Reagan]