The Support Ate it All

First, looking over the skill book,

[Skill Book – Explosive Bullet]

Seo Ye-in had chosen an explosive special bullet skill.

It may be less effective than the piercing bullet or cutting bullet in piercing barriers or strong defenses.

Of course, that was only a relative comparison.

It’s still stronger than regular magic bullets.

If she combined magic bullet + explosive bullet + ejection, it could easily break through even if Hong Yeon-hwa cast a triple-layered defensive magic.

Provided it’s backed by a sufficient rank, of course.

Another reason most Marksmen prioritized explosive or impact bullets was their versatility.

It’s not like we’ll only be fighting against humans.

The majority of monsters weren’t humanoid, and many of them were quite large.

For example, you couldn’t deal significant damage to a mid-to-large-sized monster like an ogre with just piercing bullets.

It’s like trying to stab someone with a needle. It might hurt more, but it’d take forever to kill them.

That’s why impact bullets, which transmitted shock internally, and explosive bullets, which destroyed a wide area, had higher versatility.

Finally, there was the fact that choosing these bullets expanded the range of weapons that could be selected later on.

She would be able to use various explosive weapons like rocket launchers and mortars.

There was the drawback that the cost of these weapons wasn’t a joke.

But it’s Hye-seong Group, after all.

For this rich girl, it wasn’t much of a drawback.

Whether Seo Ye-in had considered all these factors or simply followed her gut instinct was unclear.

In any case, both Ahn Jeong-mi and I thought explosive bullets were an excellent choice.

As soon as she used the skill book, Seo Ye-in was enveloped in a bright light.

Flaaash!

Probably something like this notification message appeared.

[Activated ‘Skill Book – Explosive Bullets’.]

[Acquired ‘Explosive Bullet (F)’.]

Next up was the rolled-up parchment.

[Quest Scroll – Marksmanship]

Marksmanship was a trait that gave bonuses to all ranged skills and traits.

In Seo Ye-in’s case, just learning it would add a bonus to the magic bullet, ejection, and explosive bullet skills.

Because of this versatility, demand was high, and the price was no joke.

But it’s Hye-seong Group, after all.

It seemed there really was nothing money couldn’t solve.

They probably purchased it through a scholarship student from the archery club.

I gave Seo Ye-in a light nod.

“Give it a try.”

“Mhmm.”

Flaaash!

Once again, the scroll shone brightly and enveloped Seo Ye-in.

As the name suggested, a quest scroll gave the user a quest, and upon completion, they would receive a reward.

The objectives were assigned randomly but the difficulty was capped based on the level of the reward.

In other words, it wouldn’t suddenly ask her to defeat a Blood Cult elder out of nowhere.

Seo Ye-in stared blankly into the air.

“……”

“What did you get?”

“This.”

At my question, she shared the details of the quest.

[Side Quest – Marksmanship]

? Objective: Kill enemies (0/100)

Consecutive kills (0/30)

Headshots (0/15)

? Reward: Marksmanship

It wasn’t far from what I had expected.

There was no need to explain the kill part, while consecutive kills meant taking out enemies one after another without missing a shot.

As for headshots, it required hitting enemies between the eyes with magic bullets.

With Seo Ye-in’s skills, she should be able to meet all three conditions without much trouble.

The only issue was the location. It should be somewhere with over 100 enemies.

For now, there’s only the dungeon.

It would be nice if training dummies counted, but quests weren’t usually that lenient.

“We’ll have to wait until the week of the strategy battle.”

“Mhmm.”

“Shall we start by dealing with the explosive bullet skill then?”

“Let’s do that.”

We headed towards the training center.

***

Training center.

Training room.

For this session, we had called one more person besides the two of us.

“Kim-hyung, Miss Seo.”

“Oh, you’re here.”

Go Hyeon-woo looked back and forth at us with a slightly excited expression.

“Come to think of it, this is the first time I’m training with both of you, isn’t it?”

“You always manage just fine on your own.”

Go Hyeon-woo had entered the Dragon Slayer Academy with a clear goal of fulfilling his sect’s long-standing desire.

Part of that goal was likely to earn the right to wield his sealed sacred artifact one day.

In any case, his ambition was naturally exceptional.

So whenever he was given opportunities like access to special training rooms, elixirs, or encounters with legendary masters, he would grow rapidly like a tiger with wings.

Moreover, Go Hyeon-woo had already mastered high-level martial arts, so there was little need to intervene.

Though he wasn’t quite on Seo Ye-in’s level, he was very talented.

He would probably figure out his current problem—the difficulty of using his movement technique and sword techniques at the same time—if he was just given enough time.

“But I want to solve this one quickly.”

“I appreciate it. Though, may I ask why?”

“As I mentioned before, we’re entering a B-rank dungeon next week.”

“I remember. It’s definitely not an easy place.”

Especially for Go Hyeon-woo, who had narrowly escaped death in the Black Death dungeon.

So reinforcing our strength, even just a little, would make it easier to handle unexpected situations.

Next, I pointed to Seo Ye-in.

“This young miss still has one more duel left to fight.”

“It seems the final match will take place after some additional training.”

Go Hyeon-woo nodded his head in understanding.

Seo Ye-in had just acquired the [Explosive Bullet] skill, and it was at F-rank.

It could still cause an explosion, but its power and range were lacking.

It was practically useless in its current state.

“To use it effectively in actual combat, she’ll need to raise it to at least D-rank.”

“I see. So what do you need me to do?”

“First, go stand over there.”

I pointed to a spot on one side of the training room, and Go Hyeon-woo trudged over and stood there.

Then I led Seo Ye-in to the opposite side, positioned her, and spoke as we both looked at Go Hyeon-woo.

“What do you see over there?”

“Go Hyeon-woo.”

“Looks like he’ll be satisfying to shoot, right?”

“I’ll take him down.”

Seo Ye-in immediately pulled out her assault rifle.

For some reason, she seemed more eager than usual.

Seeing that, Go Hyeon-woo spoke.

“Hmm, I think I understand my role now.”

“Yeah, you’re just going to block and dodge over there.”

In my philosophy, the more you get hit, the more you twist your body, and the more you twist, the better your skills become.

And if your skills still don’t improve? Then you just get hit more.

I added one condition.

“Use whatever movement technique you want, but stick mainly to Pure Flow for your sword techniques.”

“That seems like the best option.”

Clear Stream created too many openings during its execution, which made it bad for this kind of training.

There was no need for him to counterattack Seo Ye-in anyway.

On the other hand, Pure Flow was relatively easy to deploy, and since it was a defensive technique, it would make it easier to withstand the barrage of magic bullets.

After positioning the two against each other, I took my place by one side of the wall like a referee.

“This time, since one side will be purely defending, I’ll also lend some support to the defense.”

Whirrrr—

Wind gathered like a vortex and formed a spherical barrier around Go Hyeon-woo.

I just cast Wind Barrier.

Even Go Hyun-woo would get his hands and feet tangled up if he did something he wasn’t used to, and as his hands and feet got tangled, he would gradually allow effective hits.

To maintain some balance, I needed to step in and reinforce his defense.

It’s a good chance to rank it up too.

Until now, I had been alternating barriers while making the iron dummies fight each other, but I expected that blocking magic bullets would allow for much faster rank progression.

The simultaneous casting of Wind Force and Twister was just a bonus.

All in all, it was a training method that allowed all three of us to improve our skills at the same time.

“Are you ready?”

I glanced at Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in in turn, and they both gave a small nod in response to signal that they were prepared.

“Then, let’s begin.”

As soon as my signal was given, Go Hyeon-woo raised his sword to mid-level and slowly picked up his pace while facing his opponent.

Seo Ye-in immediately reached for her magazine.

Her hand, which was now glowing blue, filled it with magic bullets.

If you took one of those bullets and examined it closely, you’d see a bomb symbol engraved on one side of the casing.

It meant [Explosive Bullet] had been added.

Then, her gun was aimed at the opponent, and it began firing bursts of blue flames.

Ratatatata!

Go Hyeon-woo remained calm throughout.

As if to reflect his calm attitude, his magic sword moved smoothly, and the wind wrapped around the blade deflected each of the magic bullets one by one.

This is just the basics.

Since the magic bullets were being fired head-on, any swordsman of a certain level could deflect them with ease.

Go Hyeon-woo needed to take a step beyond that.

Whirrr—

Another gust of wind swirled around his legs.

In that state, Go Hyeon-woo began to step forward, one step, then two.

However,

It’s getting clumsy.

Though his high-level movement technique allowed him to extend smoothly in all directions, slight gaps began to show in the once flawless defense.

Magic bullets squeezed through those gaps and struck the Wind Barrier.

Pop pop pop,

Tiny explosions that were barely the size of a baby’s fist.

Since they were F-rank explosive bullets, they were rather insignificant.

But this is just the beginning.

Everyone starts off clumsy, after all.

Go Hyeon-woo kept stepping forward, despite how awkward it felt.

I continued reinforcing the barrier in quick succession.

And Seo Ye-in kept firing like a machine.

Her magic gun emitted an endless stream of blue light.

Ratatatata!

***

We spent all of our free time immersed in training.

Seo Ye-in fired, Go Hyeon-woo blocked and dodged with his Pure Flow and movement technique, and I cast the barrier.

As expected, Seo Ye-in was the first to show results.

Suddenly, she stopped shooting and said one thing.

“It ranked up.”

“E-rank?”

– Nod,

From that moment, the explosions that had been no bigger than a baby’s fist grew to the size of an adult’s palm. They broke through the Wind Barrier and gradually caused damage to Go Hyeon-woo.

Of course, Go Hyeon-woo’s pain didn’t last long because,

[The rank of ‘Wind Barrier’ has increased. (E+ -> D+)]

My skill rank had risen by one level too.

Once again, the balance between offense and defense was evenly matched.

In the midst of it all, Go Hyeon-woo finally reached enlightenment.

Whirrr—

His movement technique and Pure Flow technique, which had been disconnected until now, suddenly connected smoothly for a moment.

Most of the magic bullets missed their mark, while the rest were deflected by Pure Flow.

“Kim-hyung.”

Go Hyeon-woo looked at me with a big smile on his face.

As expected, getting beaten up always leads to improvement.

I nodded calmly.

“Well done. Now, let’s master it completely.”

“Of course.”

Go Hyun-woo was excited and started to use the techniques at the same time again.

Seo Ye-in’s gun barrel followed his movements.

Ratatatata!

***

A few more days of training passed, and by Friday, Go Hyeon-woo’s movement technique and Pure Flow technique, which had only occasionally connected by chance, flowed smoothly like water.

Now, it was rare to see any awkwardness.

He was even mixing in the Clear Stream technique from time to time.

Seo Ye-in had also made progress.

In the middle of wildly firing magic bullets, she suddenly stopped again and stared straight at me.

“It ranked up.”

“D-rank?”

“Mhmm.”

It had only taken her a few days to raise a newly learned skill from F to D rank.

No matter how many times I saw it, her talent was terrifying.

Now that she’d leveled it up enough to use in real combat, the next step was clear.

“Let’s go finish your duel battles. It’s time to teach a lesson to some mages.”

“Teach them a lesson.”