Gun Girl from Another World

Chapter 40

Training

”Oh, right, the dungeon! When are we heading out for that?”

I won’t lie, I’m incredibly excited to see a real dungeon with my own eyes. My imagination is wild with speculation I’m simultaneously pretty sure the actual experience will never live up to, and I don’t care.

I must look like an overeager puppy, to judge from the apologetic look Ayre gives me.

”Ah, if it’s alright, I want to put it off until I’ve trained down.”

I’m confused, I thought we were going soon after the nest. And her phrasing is strange. “Trained down? What do you mean?”

Her eyes widen. “Oh! That’s right, you spend your points. I’d nearly forgotten.”

She takes a moment to consider her words and gather her thoughts. “Well, for normal people with classes, practicing and even fighting only generates points. I could shoot a thousand rats without my status or skills ever improving. Until we accumulate enough points to afford an increase, nothing happens.”

”Oh!” I pop my palm with my fist. “So now that you’ve got a bunch of extra points, it’s a great opportunity to spend them by doing what you want them to go into! Burning them off like after a dungeon!”

She beams a smile at the understanding and nods. “That’s right! I’m going to work on my archery and the skills related to it. Maybe some Agility and Strength training, too, if I can fit them in.”

”Strength?” I ask with a confused frown. “Why Strength?”

She taps her bow. “Have you ever used a hunting bow, Remmi?”

I shake my head.

”It’s not the same, or as much, as a melee weapon, but drawing it fully back can require a lot more raw strength than non-archers expect. In fact, just regularly shooting one will lead to Strength points. The higher your Strength, the higher the draw weight you can handle and the more powerful your shots.”

She pulls her bow off and bends it under one leg to string it, then passes it to me. “Go ahead, try.”

I do my best to plant myself correctly and pull the string back with my first two fingers while my forward hand pushes away from me. The first half is easy enough, but by the time I’m getting past three-quarters draw, I am feeling it in my shoulders.

And my Strength is five times what I started with.

”Oh, gosh, Ayre!” I gasp out as my arms wobble trying to hold the bow at full draw. “What kind of sleeper build are you packing?!”

That gets a giggle out of her before she helps me ease the string back to resting so I don’t just let it snap. “I’m actually surprised you were able to fully draw it at all,” she admits. “My Strength is nearly half again what yours is. Your Agility is higher, though.”

She takes the bow back and goes through the process of unstringing it again. “Your stance style is strange,” she comments like an aside. “I thought you said you haven’t done archery before?”

”I haven’t used a hunting bow,” I clarify, “but I had a youth bow when I was younger. I know the basics, but I wouldn’t dream of competing against you in target practice.” I grin and pat my pistol. “Well, not with a bow, anyway.”

”All that you had to cram into your brain,” Yorin muses, “and you still had time to dabble in sports you would never use? Remmi, your people truly have an excessive amount of free time.”

Ayre glances back to the priestess in confusion. “What about her brain?”

”Twelve years of formal education for all citizens prior to adulthood,” I provide. “Math, literature, science, history, biology ...”

The archer shakes her head at that like it was threatening a migraine just thinking about it. “What a horrible explanation for that ridiculous Intellect ...”

I laugh it off with amusement, then pull the conversation back on track. “Where are you going to do this training? The guild?” I recall that big training area they had in back.

But Ayre shakes her head. “They charge to use that,” she explains. “An Iron mission, especially a split one, wouldn’t cover the service cost. Even the dungeon, I’d be throwing away basically all of my profits in one go. I was just going to get some cheap targets and go a short way into the forest, maybe come back with some furs for expenses.”

I didn’t realize that place was so expensive, but I guess it makes sense. It was pretty impressive. It’s really not surprising that you need a gym membership to use it.

”In that case,” I offer, “why don’t you come up to my place? I can get stuff for an extra bed and a divider screen so you can have some privacy, and I’ve got a target range for my own practice you’re more than welcome to use. And, shoot, I’ve got fifty acres, most of which I don’t have any clue what to do with. I’ll bet I could put together some sort of obstacle course for us.”

She blushes in embarrassment. “Oh, gee, I’d hate to intrude, Remmi ... I’m sure you have your own prep work to do.”

”Not really,” I admit. “If you leave me to my own devices, I’m probably just going to experiment with the purified bone and tinker with the Noodle Spitter.”

Her bewildered expression turns into a yelp when Yorin clamps her hands down on the archer’s shoulders from behind. “Please go with her,” she urges with intensity.

I feel a bit insulted, but it’s in line with what I want, so I let it roll and play my one extra card. “Plus, if we’re doing things together, you’ll get more bonus points, right? That means you’ll be able to get more gains than if you just went and spent what you’ve already gotten alone.”

”That’s a good argument ...” Ayre tentatively admits. “If you don’t think it will be too much of a hassle.”

”Nonsense!” I insist. “And it’ll be nice to have someone around. I don’t know if it works with points, but back home, you always seem to improve more when you’ve got somebody alongside you, doing it with you!”

”Well, if you’re sure,” the archer finally relents. But then she tilts her head as another thought reaches her with that matter out of the way. “Wait ... Remmi, why are you training if you don’t have to do it to expend all of the points you got?”

I cross my arms. “I may not have to train in order to spend my points, but I still have to do it to know what I’m doing. The more familiar you can get with your body and what you can do, the faster and more naturally it’ll respond when you need it!”

”Oh, well said, Remmi,” Yorin puts in with a casually accusing tone. “Like Xuhi, you are growing skilled at passing my counsel as your own wisdom.”

I frown - and very specifically do not pout - at my cool moment being called out. “It’s not less true just because you said it, too, Yorin.”

She gives an overdramatic sigh. “Yes, that is her excuse, as well.”

”Who’s Xuhi?”

I inhale to answer Ayre, but before I can, Yorin cuts in again.

”Speaking of points, Remmi, Ayre is correct that you do have quite an abundance of them. Have you considered how you will spend them? If this is to be a period of training, some self-investment seems timely.”

I can see in Ayre’s face that we both got the message, and we play along with the topic change. I consider the question for a bit before giving my answer.

”Well, with this much, I could probably bring myself on up to level 10.”

”Please don’t!”

I look to Ayre in surprise, and she fidgets in the wake of her outburst.

”I mean, I know it’s probably selfish to expect a Hero to hold themselves back for me, but ...” Her fingers tie knots around each other for a bit. “Well, the way your status goes, your ten is probably going to be more like thirty! There’s no way I can keep up with that! Just ... just wait until after the dungeon, okay?!”

... Is Ayre worried about being left behind if she can’t keep up?

It takes me a moment to kick my brain into motion again and I scratch at my cheek as I grin nervously. “Sure, Ayre, if that’ll make you feel better. If we end up in a spot where I need the extra power, I can always pump it then.”

I turn my consideration to what I could put so many points into without raising my level. There are some abilities I want to get that will really increase my performance, but I hardly know them right now. I’ll need to ask around for advice.

”Actually, there is something I can do now,” I decide. “I could go ahead and bump up my Intellect so it doesn’t lag behind. That’ll help my performance with things like my fire and thunder bullets without increasing my level any, since I’m not a caster, and I’ll be able to focus on my combat stats later without worrying about it!”

Yorin nods in approval. “That is a wise choice that meets the demands of your team. Will you do it now?”

I glance over to her with a quirked eyebrow. Is there some reason she’s wanting me to do it right away, or is it just more derailment? I suppose it doesn’t matter.

”Sure,” I say, and open the relevant menus. I navigate through buying the points, then pause at the confirmation screen. “Whoa ...”

Ayre leans over like she might be able to see. “What’s wrong?”

”There’s a big jump in stat cost past 150.”

She looks at me with wide, disbelieving eyes. “How high are you raising it?!”

”Two hundred. Any less and I’ll be right back to the same problem the moment I try leveling up my main class stats. I was thinking of bringing Strength and Toughness up to a hundred each, since I’m reaching a point of diminishing usefulness for them, and raising Agility on up to one-fifty. Two hundred Intellect just makes sense for ratio, then.”

I check the cost of more Intellect points out of sheer curiosity. “Looks like they jump even more after two hundred. Probably again at three hundred, I’ll bet.”

I apply the changes and watch my Intellect and MP both jump to two hundred. Despite the leap, my level remains five. Disappointingly, I don’t notice any sudden spark of increased genius, either.

With two hundred mana, the fact I have so little to spend it on weighs even heavier, but those new skills I want should help with that. I’m sure the few thousand points I still have left over will be sufficient for them.

”And done,” I announce, rather anticlimactically I think. I turn to Ayre. “Ready to go?”

She, however, glances to Yorin. “Um ... we need our pay from the guild. Do we still need to talk to them?”

The priestess seems to consider it for a moment, though I’m certain she’s already made her decision long before she was asked. “I will talk to the guildmaster and collect your wages for the elimination of the monster nest. I’ll bring you the funds so you can buy the supplies to sustain you during your training expedition.”

”Oh, right,” I blink. “Gonna need to get more food. Especially for two people.”

Yorin smiles that motherly smile and places a bag of coins on the table. “Why don’t the two of you indulge in the public baths before you disappear into the woods? My treat. I’ll come find you once I’m finished at the guild, and then you can do the rest of your shopping from there.”