The meal Lucen had was, as usual, a rather decent meal, one that anyone else in the north would have difficulty finding.
While he was eating, he was not joined by his father or his four-year-old brother, and the only one with him was the old butler Vahn. After he was done eating, Lucen went back to the training grounds. This time, he was going to see how strong his current abilities as a gun mage are.
The current abilities he has as a gun mage are bullet creation and gun creation. These were the most basic abilities of a gun mage.
Unlike normal mages who use mana to manipulate the very elements around them, the gun mage can only use mana to create bullets and guns. If a gun mage tries to manipulate mana like other mages, it would only result in an explosion.
Lucen couldn't remember much as to why gun mages couldn't use normal magic, but it had something to do with the way mana flows in their bodies, and their mana core was completely different.
'Damn, before when it was still a game I wouldn't think to deeply about it, but now that's my reality it's kinda scary not knowing why I can't use normal magic even though I have a mana core... Tsk, no use thinking about it now, since I won't get an answer. Better see what I can do with these abilities, and see how I can get stronger.'
Lucen cleared his mind as he checked his current status window.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Lucen Thornehart
Age: 12
Class: Gun Mage
Health: 79 / 130
Mana: 80 / 80
Aura: Locked
Mana Core: First Circle
Skills:
• Bullet Creation – Active (Novice)
• Gun Creation – Active (Novice)
• Gun Knowledge – Passive (Novice)
Traits:
• Thornehart Lineage (Dormant)
• Foreign Soul (Unique)
Surprisingly, his health had increased by thirty without him noticing, he couldn't remember if he had heard any notification about his health increasing. It would have also been better if he could see his other stats, like strength, agility, and such.
Whatever, let's stop thinking and start shooting.
When he was ready, Lucen used his skill Gun Creation to create a revolver. Lucen then took out the bullet he had created yesterday. As Lucen loaded the bullet into the revolver, he pointed it at the training dummy a few feet away from him.
Even though Lucen had never fired a gun before, both in this life and the last, with passive skill gun knowledge, Lucen had an understanding of recoil and proper posture. Unfortunately, the knowledge of posture was only for the Arquebus type gun. Still, he did play a lot of games with people using similar revolvers, so he decided to take a similar posture.
Lucen took aim and breathed in and out, as excitement flowed through his body. When he was ready, Lucen's finger squeezed the trigger.
BANG!
The sound of the bullet firing was quite loud as it rang in Lucen's ear. Lucen stumbled backward as the recoil was greater than he expected. Due to his current weak physique, he almost dropped the gun as his hands were now shaking.
Lucen looked at the training dummy he shot at, and he saw a neat hole punched through the training dummy. Lucen couldn't help but be excited as he looked at the training dummy.
...
Vahn, who had been waiting for the young master to finish his training, was just outside the training ground when he suddenly heard a loud sound coming from the training ground. Vahn quickly moved to the training ground, saw his young master holding an unusual thing in his hand, and noticed that one of the training dummies had a small hole pierced through it.
The training dummies in the training ground were rather sturdy to be able to make a hole like that, you would need quite a bit of skill and strength. The problem was that the hole was too small to be made into a sword or a spear; it was like a finger pierced through it.
No, there's something more unusual here now. What is that item the young master is holding?
Vahn stared at the unknown object in Lucen's hand and noticed something, a familiar feeling. Even though there were only a few that used it here in the north, Vahn knew that this feeling was mana.
"Vahn?!"
Lucen, who finally noticed Vahn was surprised, but then Vahn, who was a distance away, suddenly disappeared. Lucen couldn't follow Vahn's movements as he suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Excuse me, young master, I need to check on something."
Vahn grabbed hold of Lucen's free hand, checked something, and after a few seconds, Vahn showed a stunned expression.
"Young master, you have awakened mana. To think a proud descendant of the Thorneharts, the greatest of knights, would not awaken Aura but instead would awaken Mana."
The old butler Vahn could not help but sigh. While the old butler was distracted, Lucen let go of the revolver, making it disappear.
"Young master, I'll be leaving first. I need to report this to the lord."
After placing his right hand onto his heart and bowing, Vahn left. Lucen, who could not get a word in, simply stared blankly as Vahn disappeared from his sight. Lucen, who was stunned for a while, shook his head and sighed.
'Well, it's not like I was going to hide that I have mana. Let's ignore that for now and continue trying out how to shoot.'
Lucen then made another revolver and used Bullet Creation to create a few more bullets. He did this until his mana was near zero. Lucen then tried shooting at the training dummy. This time, he was ready for the recoil and got into a steadier position. Lucen then fired another shot, but this time he was not pushed back by the recoil. It was then that a notification sounded in his mind.
[Strength +1]
[Endurance +1]
[Dexterity +1]
[Marksmanship Proficiency + 50%]
Lucen was amazed that not only did his stats, which no longer increased as fast as before, increase by one point, but his marksmanship proficiency also increased by 50%. This was in great contrast to the 0.2% from swordsmanship.
'I guess it's to be expected. This body of a gun mage only has talents for things related to guns.'
Now, with his increased marksmanship, his body automatically moves into a better posture for shooting. Of course, before doing anything else, Lucen checked his status window, but the same as before, there was nothing different, even though his marksmanship had increased greatly.
Lucen then continued shooting the remaining bullets he created, and when he shot his last bullet, he once again heard a notification.
[Marksmanship Proficiency + 50%]
[Unlock skill Marksmanship (passive) (novice)]
The second Lucen heard that, he had unlocked a skill he quickly checked his status window.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Lucen Thornehart
Age: 12
Class: Gun Mage
Health: 93 / 132
Mana: 3 / 80
Aura: Locked
Mana Core: First Circle
Skills:
• Bullet Creation – Active (Novice)
• Gun Creation – Active (Novice)
• Gun Knowledge – Passive (Novice)
• Marksmanship – Passive (Novice)
Traits:
• Thornehart Lineage (Dormant)
• Foreign Soul (Unique)
'So does that mean I can unlock skills once my Proficiency reaches a hundred percent?... Well, I guess skills that don't have anything to do with guns won't go up as fast.'
Lucen once again remembered the 0.1 percent increase in swordsmanship and sighed. Lucen then started planning how he should train from now on, knowing that he could gain skills outside his gun mage class skills.
'Simply standing and shooting would work against normal people, but against aura users who can strengthen their bodies and even increase their armor defense using mana shooting without moving seems like a sure way to get killed... If I try to gain distance, the power of the bullet will weaken, and it might not be able to penetrate through their aura.'
It was then that Lucen remembered a certain style he saw in some movie or anime using guns for close combat.
'If I do it that way, I might be able to do some real damage even against Aura users with normal bullets. I would have wanted to finish things at a distance before the enemy could harm me, but with the current guns I can make, that would be hard against Aura users. Whatever, I just need to get my skills high enough. Once I'm able to make something like a machine gun, I'll show this world what it means to have overwhelming firepower.'
A vicious smile appeared on Lucen's face as he got excited thinking about how much he could grow.