Chapter 16... Mastery of Pyromancer's slug

The feeble glow of the morning sun remained overshadowed by the cool breeze of the autumn wind. Students went on about their normal weekend activities as usual. Those engaged in club activities such as music, theatrics, poetry amongst others voyaged to their various clubs for practice and recreation.... After all, a number of students, both awakened and not awakened, had other talents in other areas such as the ones related to clubs mentioned above. It would not be wise of the academy structure to not provide the necessary atmospheres needed to groom these talents.

Some other youths boisterously held hands. Juliets blushed as their Romeos cracked jokes and launched upon them various pleasant complements. Individuals from outside the academy ,were seen strolling through the large streets of the academy, mostly heading to the awakening center for personal reasons.

A tall young man with a messy, wavy black hair and lazy dark eyes yawned ,then clutched the pockets of his white windbreaker for no apparently good reason...well... if there were a reason, mostly one out of habit. He observed the lively atmosphere around him as he navigated his way towards the Awakening center of the academy.

Ignoring the not so few glances and stares directed his way, he focused on the hilarious annotates displayed on his retina ..

''To think someone was bold enough to give that Fanoma guy a taste of his own medicine... thumbs up to the guy who managed to make this happen''

''That guy actually managed to micturate himself... karma really pays... I remember the way he managed to drop me inside a garbage dump... It looks like judgement still awaited him....''

''No one has been bold enough to retaliate to his antics until now... since he is from the Fanoma family... thumbs up to this Lucas guy.... heheheh'' 

''He is actually crying, that arrogant bully could also cry?''

'' To think after Mr Jewel crusher put him in his place the last time at the cafeteria of the third years, he would still not learn his lesson. Serves him right... If I were that Lucas guy, I would have let him off with more than just a few rounds of humiliation''

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'' I honestly did not expect this video to have so many comments and views. It sucks that the academy structure does not allow one to earn student credits through streaming... Oh I'm here already'' Lucas proceeded to the first floor of the awakening center , then to the gym he previously trained.

He proceeded to train the pyromancer's slug skill for some time, using a training dummy as a target. Lucas realized that after consecutively firing 30 flame bullets, he reached his limit.. This was his current limit for maximizing the efficiency of the skill as an E class hunter for a day. He remembered during the training session with the AI coach, the AI coach hinted that for an E ranker such as himself, the maximum he could launch for a day would be 30 bullets. During the period of consecutively firing the flame bullets, he sometimes managed to land a flame bullet on the target, and subsequently sometimes managed to mix the target.

It was really arduous, thinking he was making progress, only to suddenly regress . However, his hard work paid off with time. His marksmanship grew more precise, and stable, as he landed 16 of the thirty bullets consecutively and precisely on the training dummy.

This training dummy was more sturdy and had a D class hunter attack resistance potential , as the flames that sprouted from the bullets failed to achieve much at maiming it's constitution .

'' Finally, it looks like I've finally managed to master this skill. '' Lucas' progress was quite applaudable, as skills were not that easily assimilable. For skills that even had a normal difficulty rate to learn, it took the majority more than 5 days, if not weeks, to learn them. However, for a skill with such a high learning difficulty, Lucas took a few hours to learn the skill, and finally achieve skill mastery in such a short period of time.

''It's time I head back to rest. Also I am quite hungry. It's quite shocking that I returned to the apartment to get something to eat not quite long ago. All this training is really burning my energy reserves. The hunger pangs I feel are nothing to scoff at'' 

Lucas decided to take some time off from training. He headed back to his apartment, took a shower and enjoyed a meal prepared by Anna the AI.

With his back reclining on a sofa in his living room after the afternoon Sunday meal, he decided to confirm the validity of his hypothesis that a skill would be registered in his Id status feature only after he had assimilated it.

''Status''

[ Name; Lucas Grimstone. Age; 15 .... Sex; Male.... Height; 1.9 meters ....Citizenship; Marion Country, Oslon City,.... Parents ;Paul Grimstone and Selena Grimstone..( Deceased).....

Occupation; E rank hunter, Student of Oslon city academy.

Affinity; Permanent mirroring

Affinities permanently mirrored; Flame affinity... Associated skill; Flame Maestro.(Click here for details of skill), Pyromancers slug.(Click here for details of skill)

Lightning affinity; nil skill associated]

''It looks like my hypothesis was on point... Now it's time to check the details of the skills''. Using a telepathy, Lucas proceeded to firstly view the details of the flame maestro skill.

[Flame Maestro; Skill that can only be used by flame affinity awakeners. The individual is able to control and launch flames at will. However, range of flame onslaught , attack power and control over flames depends on hunter's level]

''I see, just I anticipated. It works in a similar way to the lightning maestro skill. However since this skill was permanently mirrored from someone whose affinity I already copied, there is no notification concerning the learning difficulty rate. After all, I already learnt the skill when I simultaneously mirrored the guy's affinity so what's the need in adding the learning difficulty rate?. I suppose the learning difficulty rate for the Pyromancer's slug too will be absent, since I have also managed to learn it, although through manual means''. Lucas mused to himself.

His hypothesis concerning the Pyromancer's slug skill proved positive, as the learning difficulty rate for the skill was absent.

[Pyromancer's slug; Skill that can only be used by flame affinity awakeners. The individual is able to create fire bullets and launch them at a designated prey. Number of fire bullets that can be created and launched in a period of 24 hours depends on the hunter's level]

Lucas nodded his head in satisfaction... Now he decided to check the platform of the WHA for details of some interesting feeds he happened to chance across the previous day.