Chapter 051: Truth of Tropes

Funnily enough, he did not want to find out what my boomstick does.

What a shame.

That merchant quickly stumbles back a few steps before falling over; scrambling to get as far away from me as possible. Something that almost brought a chuckle to leave my lips. Sadly I couldn't exactly revel in someone else's fear as I had a facade to keep up and consistency was the best thing for that.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Just when I worried about there not being a fight, finally waking up from their confusion, those fake mercs suddenly came to clear my worries like guardian angels. The bulkiest of the trio even jumped directly into action with his friends not being too far behind. Dashing in front of the pseudo-merchant with that large weaponless man going even further.

Said man reeled his fist back as he attempted to throw that massive fist towards me - unfortunately for him I had learned a lot. Avoiding the blow was far easier than the chains of water from that mad master of mine. A simple pivot and I found my revolver resting right under his chin.

And I don't hesitate.

[Heavenly Golden Gun]

I felt energy flow through from my "heart", up my arm and into the revolver in my hand. That heat almost seemed to subtly ask what I wanted of it with me having a few choices with all my attributes. Of course it was limited to my "holy elements" but that was also a factor that made me slightly confused… I sensed a total of "five" options for what I could do.

There was a violent one that preferred to adapt the attack to be more "efficient" although I could also feel it melding with another element that seemed similar if also different. While the former desired to copy & adept the latter was just about pure destruction without the stability the first boasted. Although stability didn't mean it was safer since I felt it could easily influence those who come into contact with it.

These are likely demonic & heavenly elements then the two combined; just like my mini-master said.

Another element was far more sneaky than the first two yet unmistakably held some similarities to the adaptive demonic. Having the ability to do what I imagine regular holy people could do but also use it in inventive new ways that went against the intention of the techniques. Such as making healing magic…

Not so healthy.

It also seemed to be heavily influenced by the past, specifically my first life, so it reminded me a lot of my mama who always talked about the strength gathered to suffering. In this case it seemed to be quite literal as far as this holy attribute was concerned. I'm tempted to say it's karma since that is all about what comes around goes around.

At least I would if not for the final "fifth" element that I didn't even know how to explain - seemingly its strength had nothing to really do with me. A realisation that made it impossible to know what it actually did as all I knew was that it was there. The fact that I had no idea meant that it was most likely the very same attribute that my teacher had no clue about.

Making it karma?

Then the one based around suffering must be the "evil" attribute?

I'll simply try the attribute least likely to cause me issues.

With my barrel resting against the underside of his jaw, a heavenly element rolling through my body, the chamber of my weapon began to glow. Causing the eyes of everyone watching to widen. They seemed to want to shout out to their team mate as he pushed some aura out his body in an attempt to defend against my attack.

It wasn't a bad idea and may have helped if he wanted to defend against a regular bullet… However, just as I made note of, the heavenly attribute only cared about one thing. Delivering the most devastating strikes that was inhumanely possible while also discovering some brand new information about it.

Either Way…

*PIYO*

He wasn't getting back up.

A shot fired up to the sky with a trail of flaming gold following behind causing no shadows to exist within the forest for that short moment.

From it came a stream of lightning that was soon joined by the thunderous sound of air rushing back to the brief vacuum made from the power of the shot. Blood didn't even fall to the floor as any wound made on my target was instantly calcified. As for what injury he had?

Well, it was easier to start with what he suddenly found himself lacking.

That being his entire head.

His head was gone.

Like, there was just a calcified neck, smoke rising from where his neck should have combined with his head as he stood for a few seconds. Seemingly his body was confused about what to do. Not surprisingly due to the sudden tragic lack of a brain on account of having his head vapourised. A plus was that this made it surprisingly not as brutal; should help me maintain a clean image despite the whole killing thing.

That body finally realised that gravity still affected it so it collapsed lifelessly to the floor in front of his agape allies. While I was thankful to him for allowing me to test the new abilities I found myself with nevertheless I was fairly alone in this opinion.

"N-NO~!"

"She killed him so easily…"

"SHIT!"

Their reactions were hardly anything surprising, though, as it certainly was quite the impressive big of firepower if I were to compliment myself. Although looking down at my revolver revealed the disadvantage to the heavenly element. Steam rose from my gun as I opened up the weapon to reveal that it had essentially eaten up all the bullets to compensate.

Better than the gun itself.

"Looks like I'll also need to be more astute with maintenance." I thought out loud as I pressed the chamber ejection while pointing the gun upwards - those empty casings clattering to the ground - as I promptly pulled out an already prepared speed-reloader to refill the chamber. Simple but effective.

With the satisfying *click* of the chamber popping back into position - I raised my revolver to point towards the trio who all reacted differently. The youngest fighter among them was inconsolable while the more mature girl seemed completely bewildered at how things turned out. Lastly the merchant just seemed angry that his protection died. "Now follow my instructions or die like the bandits you are."

I said while exuding confidence… Because I was confident; even if that one shot took a full 50% of my spirit. Making me feel like shit due to the sudden loss of energy.

Spirits are energy based - even if I'm unique in that I have matter attached to my name - I am no different.

Although we were more "efficient" than humans, who needed several different things to keep themselves running, it wasn't as if we didn't feel it when we literally used our life force to power magic. It was fortunate I tested such a technique before using it in a more dangerous situation. Thankfully I was strong enough mentally to ignore the pain, letting those idiots be none the wiser that I couldn't just fire heavenly infused golden gun after heavenly infused golden gun.

"Bandits? Are you not misunderstanding this; you've just killed a tota-" The merchant was obviously the first to recover his wits as he was merely angry. Quickly trying to take control of the situation when he realised that things were not as easy as he first thought - likely hoping I'd second guess myself when he brought up the law. All while making "subtle" movements with his hands.

Resulting in those hidden "friends" moving about.

Obviously I didn't care too much about the law in the first place so expecting that to stop me was nothing short of silly. Still I decided to be funny and try messing with them a little bit more; not like they will be seeing tomorrow no matter what. "That carriage was reported as stolen and I am pretty sure you aren't a lucky owner that managed to find it out here."

I couldn't actually be sure of my claim but I didn't need to be.With my confidence being pitted against the confusion, trepidation and no doubt fear… There was no need to try much to trick them. Sure enough, the youngest "came to" quickest of all, the late-teen pulled an arrow from their quiver to aim toward me.

It needn't be said who was able to fire faster; he didn't even get a chance to put his arrow on the bowstring before I put a hole in his forehead.

Those idiots hiding in the tree also sent a flurry of arrows & a few fireballs the size of tennis balls at me which would be hard to dodge…

BUT GUESS WHAT I FIXED~!

"Hehehe~." A hardlight shield formed around my body resulting in those attacks harmlessly bouncing off due to the highest level being a mere level 15. At least that's what I desperately wanted to say but that shield fizzled out soon after activating it and I merely timed its activation to coincide with the arrival of the barrage of attacks.

Ironically, if they were less organised, it would have been a larger problem since the energy requirement for the hardlight shield essentially fried it. Making it a one time use item that needed to be carefully timed in order to avoid becoming swiss cheese. The price is also not that of a one time use item.

…

What was more interesting was the fact that the game didn't bring us into one of those "sub-dimensions" but perhaps there was more needed to activate it? Wouldn't be surprising if that mad didn't tell me all the information surrounding the intricacies of the system. Perhaps it was more location based than that goddess let on?

There would be a lot of testing to do in the future; I can already think of ten variables that will need to be tested to ensure my knowledge is completely accurate.

Information is power that can be measured in bytes.

Regardless…

*click*

"Time to have some fun~♥"