Chapter 54
When you use the Light Beam Bullet skill in the game,
the motion goes something like this:
First, you take something out from the gun belt—
a thin, cylindrical piece that looks like a gun part—
and attach it to the front of the barrel.
If I were to compare it to something in real life,
it looked kind of like a silencer, the sort of thing you attach to the end of a gun to muffle the sound.
Anyway, once you attach that and fire a magic bullet,
it shoots out as a laser-like beam.
But, of course, there was no such thing in my current gun belt.
So while I was standing there blankly staring at Craig,
he went off to the corner of the training grounds—
the same place he had gone before to fetch that old pistol—
and disappeared into the storage shed there.
And he didn’t come out for quite a while.
“……”
So I was left alone, awkwardly waiting with Johanna.
‘Hmm… maybe now’s a good time to ask her?’
There was something I’d been meaning to get her advice on anyway,
so the timing seemed right.
Awkwardness could be endured for a moment.
I carefully called out to her.
“Um, Miss Johanna…”
“Hm? Did you call me, my little Ultimate Shooter Elaine?”
At that answer, I immediately regretted opening my mouth.
Why—why on earth did my old name have to come up now?!
“I—I already changed my name!”
I waved my new ID card, with my updated name printed on it, in protest.
But she just covered her mouth and chuckled like she found it all very amusing.
“Yes, yes, you did change your name.
But what can I do? I still prefer your old one.”
I could almost hear something inside me bubbling and boiling.
Seriously, what the hell?!
An NPC refusing to use my new name and insisting on calling me by my old one—
how did that make any sense?
Sure, I’d long since realized that this world was no longer a game but a real, living place…
But still!
That was going too far!
I had paid a legitimate renaming fee!
A whole 30 Rainbow Stones, no less!
Do you know how much I suffered and struggled to collect that many?
‘And now it’s all for nothing… sniff.’
Tears pricked my eyes.
“Why did you call me over if you’re just going to sit there in silence, dear child?”
Well, at least she usually called me just “child” rather than using any name at all.
That much I could live with.
I steeled myself and spoke.
“I, um… recently learned a new spell that consumes a lot of mana.”
It was a secret art that temporarily shared the goddess’s blessing with nearby allies.
The mana cost was… enormous.
Even during the last dungeon run,
I had to drink three-digit amounts of mana potions—
and that’s just counting the bottles!
Sure, they tasted good and didn’t fill you up no matter how much you drank,
but still—chugging potion after potion nonstop was tiring.
That’s what I wanted to ask her about.
“Hmmm, a spell that shares the goddess’s blessing, you say?
Adrian, that boy sure knows some curious things.
Even I—who have lived for over a hundred years—have never heard of such a thing.”
“……!”
Her words made my brain momentarily go blank.
What the—she’s lived over a hundred years?!
Was she some kind of actual elf or a rejuvenated immortal or what?!
“Hohoho, so what you’re really asking is—
if there’s a way to reduce the mana cost,
or recover mana faster without relying on potions, right?”
“Ah—yes, that’s right!”
I snapped back to focus and nodded quickly.
I didn’t know how she could look that young while being over a century old,
but surely she would have some wise, life-hardened advice.
And then—
“That’s something that will naturally resolve itself once you grow.”
“…Pardon?”
Her answer was… anticlimactic.
I blinked dumbly at her.
“What do you mean, it’ll resolve itself as I grow?”
After a moment’s thought, it clicked.
As your level increases, your mana pool (MP) expands.
But the spell’s mana requirement stays the same.
So, as your overall capacity grows,
the relative strain decreases—
that’s what she meant.
‘…Well, she’s not wrong.’
It was a fair point,
but not exactly a short-term solution.
There was a dungeon open right now that gave good experience gains,
but I couldn’t just grind it endlessly.
After all, before the next region opened,
I needed to prepare for its quests through various kinds of farming.
In gaming terms, farming meant repeating tasks to collect materials or items.
And since not everything could be gathered from dungeons alone,
I had to go outside to gather and craft too.
Which meant dungeon-grinding wasn’t time-efficient.
Besides, the current open dungeon was Silva Grove Forest,
a low-level area.
Its experience yield just wasn’t enough to level efficiently anymore.
Just like how crafting low-level potions didn’t raise your alchemy skill much—
it was the same principle.
So for now, there was no shortcut to massively increasing my mana capacity.
“If you can’t wait until then… hmm.
You could try equipping accessories imbued with magic that reduces mana consumption.
They’re rare, though—not easily obtained.”
When I stayed silent, Johanna chuckled softly and offered that as an alternative.
Not easy, sure—
but at least it was something I could try.
‘I could just make one myself!’
Enchanting wasn’t exactly a precise science where you got what you wanted every time,
but still—
if I kept crafting diligently, maybe luck would be on my side once or twice.
At least it was better than dumping all my resources into some gacha machine
and praying, “Please give me a mana-cost-reduction item!”
So I resolved myself to walk that long, long path of crafting once again.
And just then—
“Haha! Finally found it, Elaine!”
Craig burst out of the storage room,
covered in dust and laughing heartily.
In his hand was that cylindrical part.
‘…That thing actually works, right?’
I wasn’t too sure.
If it had been buried under that much dust and took him that long to find,
who knew if it would still function properly?
Still, if it did work, I’d basically get a new skill for free.
A detachable attachment might be a bit tricky to handle,
but all I had to do was stick it on, and I could use Light Beam Bullet.
“Alright, let’s give it a try, shall we? Come over here, my disciple!”
Craig led me over to where a bunch of wooden training dummies stood.
They were mostly used by Daren during his axe practice,
so they were already beaten up with deep cuts all over.
Then, Craig said he’d demonstrate first.
He attached the cylinder to his old pistol and fired.
A pitifully weak beam of light sputtered out from the barrel
and bounced from one dummy to another—
but left no visible damage at all.
‘…Honestly, a home laser hair remover probably has a stronger beam than that.’
Of course, I couldn’t say that aloud to my lofty mentor.
“See? That’s how it’s done. Now you try.”
Craig removed the attachment from his gun and tossed it to me.
I caught it reflexively and sighed, fitting it onto my own gun.
‘It’s tighter than I thought.
I’ll need to practice assembling it faster if I ever want to do this mid-battle.’
So much for a “free skill,” huh.
After fumbling with it for a moment, I finally aimed at one of the dummies—
and pulled the trigger.
The beam that shot out was completely different.
Brighter, thicker, far more powerful—
it was incomparable to Craig’s.
When the beam struck the wooden dummy,
it followed the axe marks Daren had made earlier—
and the entire dummy shattered apart.
Then the next one, and the next, and the next.
Five wooden dummies in total fell to the ground in pieces.
“……”
Craig just stared at me, speechless.
I wiped the sweat from my brow, avoiding his gaze.
Sure, I’d just destroyed half the training grounds,
but that wasn’t the only reason I was sweating.
‘Th-that mana consumption…!’
It was the most mana-draining skill I’d ever used.
Even more than the goddess’s blessing circle,
which I’d thought was a mana-devouring monster of a spell.
If I didn’t make a bunch of equipment to reduce mana usage,
I’d collapse from exhaustion after only a few shots.
Trying to maintain the blessing buff for my teammates
and use Light Beam Bullet on top of that?
I’d be sucked dry—
a withered mummy of a shooter.
“I-I’m so sorry…!”
Once I’d regained my composure, I apologized hastily.
Craig just laughed heartily and clapped my shoulder.
“Haha! Don’t worry about it!
We were due to replace those dummies anyway.
Daren already half-destroyed them, you see.”
‘Yeah, but I landed the finishing blow…’
I swallowed the words.
It was true that Daren had damaged them,
but the one who actually destroyed them was me.
If Belinda—the one always fussing about the budget—heard about this,
she’d probably scold me for hours.
“Haha, don’t you worry! This great teacher will handle it!”
Craig thumped his muscular chest proudly.
It looked reassuring… but somehow I didn’t feel reassured at all.
Still, with that, I’d learned one new skill.
“Alright then! Now, let’s move on to the second skill.
It’s called—Vine Bullet.”
