86 Weapon Testing

Unfortunately, even after waiting around for a couple of days, no escort quests got posted at the Guild Branch here. With that being the case we made our preparations to walk along the roads and made a stop at the Guild for one last check as we passed. As expected, no escort quests for the taking so we begin our journey anew.

"Do we really have to walk? Couldn't I just transform and make it much easier?"

"Sure you could, but then you would probably have to deal with adventurers trying to kill you every time someone sees us. And if you don't want to deal with them then going off the road would reduce encounters, but neither of us knows our way around which will likely result in us getting caught. Besides, isn't it nice to leisurely spend our time just walking together."

"I get the feeling that the last part was your true reasoning, but the first half isn't completely wrong either. so how long is the walk to the next closest city?"

"When I asked the receptionist earlier, she said it if we were walking then it would take around two days to reach our first stop, Luentinum."

"Well, that's not too bad."

The trip was quite peaceful for a while, but after a few hours, we run into a wandering monster. A monster called an Earth Bovine, and as the name suggests, it's basically a really big bison. But it's a herbivore that apparently doesn't cause much trouble unless provoked and usually travel in herds, but this one looks to be alone.

We could just let it pass, but Lia asks for the gun saying this is a good opportunity to test it. Taking another look the important stats, it is a tier 2, level 8, with 2,434 HP, 487 VIT, and 396 MND. I don't pay much attention to the rest since they are all pretty low and we are testing out the gun's firepower.

After loading up the handgun and handing it over to Lia, she primes the gun and takes aim. Channelling ice mana into the gun, she pulls the trigger and with a bang, her shot gets a clean hit on the bison's side. But despite hitting the toughest part of its body, the bison was dead with just a single shot.

"Damn! I knew guns were powerful but I didn't expect this guy to go down in a single shot." I say.

"It's not as simple as that. The gun is unquestionably strong, but I made use of the Earth Bovine's weakness and on top of that it didn't have terribly high defences. More importantly, it seems my conjecture was right, by channelling elemental mana into the gun I can change the properties of the shot. If you go and check the body, you'll probably find it to be pretty cold since I used."

Moving towards the corpse of the Bison, it really is as Lia said, as I touched the corpse it felt like I was touching ice.

"I'm sure just about anyone can use this as long as the can properly channel arcane mana into weapons, but it seems like it would be better used by people who have the ability to use several different elements for maximum damage. Anyways, put the corpse into your storage and we can cook it for dinner tonight. We can continue the conversation as we walk. And by the way, I think I'm going to keep this gun, I quite like it."

"Alright," I say, gulping down the bison in a single bite, "So how many elements can you even use anyway? I've only ever seen you use Water and Ice."

"I can't believe I've actually gotten used to seeing you open your mouth like that... anyway as for your question, I can use five of the eight Basic Elements, one of the Greater Elements and as for the Primal Elements... heh, I wish. The ones I can use are Fire, Air, Water, Ice, Lightning, and Light."

"Hold up, I know the Eight Basic Elements and Greater Elements of Light and Dark, but what are the Primal Elements?"

"I guess it makes sense that you don't know, especially since you aren't really a mage. The Primal Elements are not really Elements per se but rather they are forces of nature. No, that's not it either, but that is the best way I can describe them. It's unknown just how many there are, but a few of the ones that are known are Gravity, Space, Divine, and Demonic. Actually, you've probably been using the Primal Element of Space for a while now, although it's a bit crude your stomach storage is most likely making use of this Primal Element. Normally, people can't learn how to use the Primal Elements, you have to be born with an aptitude for it, and that in of itself is incredibly rare. But since you already make use of Space to some degree, you may be able to learn how to properly use Spacial magic."

"I can!? Do Roots form for Primal Elements? And what about Elementals?" I say, running back towards Lia, with my tail swinging back and forth.

"Down girl, one question at a time. I'm just saying that you might be able to learn, no guarantees. As for Roots and Elementals, as far as I've heard and read, there are no records of these existing."

"Oh..." I say as my tail droops down.

"Well, that's not to say they don't exist, perhaps you can be the first one to find them. You have the Brave Explorer title after all, so you should have experience in the field of discovery, so cheer up."

"Thanks, but it's not like I was depressed or anything."

"So you say, but your tail is very honest."

"Let's just keep moving!"

The rest of the trip was peaceful as night came and we set-up camp by the roadside and roasted the bison, which brought the peace to an end as some hungry monsters came along. Unfortunately for them, Lia was super excited to move more test targets as she had me tie them up and shot each monster with different elements with the gun. And as the last one died I received a notification saying I levelled up, but I didn't even do anything.

"I just levelled up, but I don't know why?"

"Did you really not notice... then again, you have been the one to do most of the killing so I guess it makes sense. And I'm partially at fault for not mentioning this sooner, but the Soul Connection allows us to share EXP. So I receive the same amount that you get and vice-versa. How did you think I've been able to get levels when you kill almost everything we run into."

"Now that you mention it you have gotten a few levels. This is a nice and convenient feature, I like it."

"It is, but that's no excuse to slack off from now on. But, let's hit the sack for now. I've done all the testing I needed for the moment so lets get to sleep early so we can hurry up to the next city, I want another gun to research."

Lia has a weird look in her eyes when she's talking about the guns, and it's eerily similar to the one she gives me when she's... excited. Deciding it's better not to think too hard about it, I force myself to sleep to try and ignore what I just saw.