Chapter 61
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Beta was immensely shocked. He would've never thought that he would encounter something like this outside of the lab he grew up in. But once he looked closer at it, he noticed a difference. There were runes on its trigger.
"So, I'm guessing the trigger will absorb soulpower from the wielder and then shoot it as a replacement for bullets? But how is it any different from a normal arrow then? As far as I can see, there are no bullets to add more punch into it... This seems so impractical?", Beta quietly muttered.
He was extremely interested in this weapon's engineering, scrutinizing every detail while comparing it to his previous knowledge about guns. It was such a fascinating idea to add in the use of soulpower, but compared to a normal gun, he thought it was a bit lacking. Of course, he couldn't really fully conclude that his hypothesis was right since he hadn't tried it yet, plus, the runes marked on it was a bit complicated and high-level. So, he could only guess that maybe the power of impact once fired would outweigh the bad sides such as the speed of traveling and the noise produced.
Johann, who noticed Beta's reaction to the weapon, was even more surprised. It was his first time seeing one up-close and personal. He had only heard about it from his elders in the Holz clan. His knowledge about it was minimal but he, for sure, know how valuable of an item it was. Even though they were quite known to be marksmen, their clan was comprised more of Wood Elementalists and archers, rather than the more domineering, gunners.
Gunners were rare too due to the weapon being too expensive and the requirement to use one needed the user to at least be at a high-level Elementalist. If used by lower levels, one could exhaust their soulpower and cause dire consequences such as death. Therefore, a single gun was considered a fortune already, especially by students. They've really hit the jackpot this time. Johann was about to touch the weapon himself but then after carefully looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar weapon, Beta casually stored the gun in his personal space.
"Eh? Dear leader… I wanna take a look too… just a touch… maybe even just the tip?", cried Johann in his head, muttering it quietly as he gave up the notion of asking his leader outright. He couldn't possibly request Beta to take it out again just so that he can ogle at it. It wasn't the right time and place after all. So, he just slowly lowered down his slightly raised hand and went back to guard the vicinity against beasts or any kind of enemies.
Even though Johann mumbled it softly, Beta was still able to hear it clearly and just shook his head while smirking. He knew that Johann wanted to take a look too but it really wasn't the time to be admiring the weapon. The matter at hand needed to be handled first though so, he looked at Elise once again.
"Do you have any other information that might be helpful for us?", Beta asked.
"They have a sign! I heard that guy over there talking about it! I'm not sure but I think it's a circle!", Elise answered while pointing at the unknown guy.
"A circle? That's all?", said Beta, a little glad that the girl was being cooperative.
"Yes! Definitely!", Elise almost shouted.
"Hmm… Is there still something else?", Beta said, looking a bit bored.
"P-Please don't kill me! I'm a really good healer! I can be of use! Please believe me!", Elise screamed, panicking then crying without end.
As Beta looked at the tears streaming down her face, his face softened a little and he squatted down to be on the same height as her as he wiped her tears away. She looked at him expectantly, a small smile surfacing on her face as she once again saw a ray of hope.
"We already have a full squad, sorry.", Beta said lightly, using the hand he had wiped her tears away with to release his void elemental soulpower, letting her head vanish instantly.
"Alright, I guess it's time to clean up! It'd be bad if someone knows what happened here. I'll just replenish my soulpower real quick and clean up then. Can I borrow some more of your mushrooms?", Beta asked while smiling at Johann.
Johann was a bit stumped at his sudden action. Even he had thought that Beta had gone soft for a moment. So, the scene of Elise's head disappearing baffled him greatly.
"E-Eh, sure...", Johann said, not really knowing how to comment to that.
It wasn't that he was opposed to killing her, but it was just too sudden of a change. Plus, the manner how Beta did it was too brutal! Showing kindness to give hope, then squashing it in the end. "Uwaah… I'm so glad he's not an enemy or else I'd die not knowing how…", Johann cried in his mind.
"Thanks!", Beta said delightedly.
Beta ate more of the mushrooms and enjoyed the feeling of the energy surging through him. The best thing about it was that there were no side effects despite the process of producing it and also the source of its energy. It was indeed a very convenient thing to ingest since it was rare to find something so pure in replenishing herbs or medicines. Especially at the moment where they were limited to what they acquired as supplies back at the camp which were only low-grade ones.
Usually, everything had at least some impurities, but because the human the mushrooms sprouted from had already filtered the soulpower to some extent, and adding to that, the mushroom filtering it once again, the soulpower became even purer. It was even to the point where there were barely any left. With Beta's void and death elemental soulpower devouring the last few dregs, they were not harming at all to him.
Beta sat down, ate some more mushrooms, and relaxed a bit. The fight was quite tense and he had been on edge the whole time. A little rest would be great for him so he didn't hesitate to take it easy. Looking into the sky which was still quite bright with clouds covering the sun's rays, then closing his eyes, as he felt a slight breeze hit his face every now and then. He sighed and smiled as he felt even better.
While Beta relaxed, Johann didn't just stand around. Even though he was exhausted himself, he was still in a far better situation compared to Beta who did so much more ever since last night. So, as a dutiful underling, he took action. He moved all of the corpses, took some mushrooms, and stacked the corpses on each other for easier disposal. Johann then put the body parts and intestines scattered around next to the pile as well and produced some Blood Roots that, through his control, swiftly sucked up all the blood stains on the ground.
Once Johann was finished doing what he was capable of, Beta finally opened his eyes again.
"Alright, let's finish things up here. We should meet up with the others soon and see if they're all okay. There's also the key which we still need to find. Although I'm not sure if the key we got will lead us there, we have to at least try.", Beta said, while at the same time releasing his soulpower to engulf the corpses in front of him.
Since the corpses weren't protected by soulpower anymore, Beta didn't have any problems accomplishing that. Of course, he expertly removed the mushrooms that Johann didn't remove yet before all this happened. Beta obviously wouldn't let go of such a good opportunity to get free food. The life that he had lived in the woods after waking up in the capsule made him enjoy mushrooms with a few pieces of meat quite a lot. So, even though Johann was looking at him oddly for taking the small ones with barely any energy in it, he still grabbed them anyway and swiftly stored it in his personal storage.
After clearing the corpses, Johann once more called forth the Blood Roots for the finishing touch, even going up to the roof where Beta had made the first kill to ensure they didn't miss anything. After that, they both gave the scene a second glance to check if everything was clean and properly covered up for any clues. Only when they were sure that they headed straight for the camp after changing his clothes and cleaning himself a bit as well.
Beta was sure that his squad would safely arrive there so he was anticipating to meet them again after so much happened. He also wanted to test the gun, but it wouldn't be appropriate to do it without researching more. Especially so, because he wasn't sure just exactly how much soulpower it would consume to even fire one.
Beta already had thoughts of equipping all of his squad members with one if the damage dealt is any good. The materials shouldn't be a problem either since he still got his rewards which he "won" from Chugum and he was also confident that he could reproduce it without the help of blacksmiths. He really couldn't wait to check it out for this would especially be a big help for their Water Elementalists as they had no real attack spell yet. The best they could do was make their enemy wet or slip which wasn't really any good for combat if they'll be left on their own.
It wasn't long before they arrived at the area where the camp was situated. As they got closer to the camp, Beta noticed that there were more squads in sight. The camp got bigger and it became more bustling than before.
"Strange… If there are so many people here, how come we didn't encounter many teams in the ruins? This seems a bit... weird.", Beta muttered.
No one really took notice of the two boys going into the camp. They looked just like any other squad that had lost most of their members in the ruins so the others just ignored them as if it was nothing new. Beta and Johann were glad about it and just walked up to a specific tent and entered it.
"We're back!", Beta said, looking at the people in front of him with a smile.
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Beta was immensely shocked. He would've never thought that he would encounter something like this outside of the lab he grew up in. But once he looked closer at it, he noticed a difference. There were runes on its trigger.
"So, I'm guessing the trigger will absorb soulpower from the wielder and then shoot it as a replacement for bullets? But how is it any different from a normal arrow then? As far as I can see, there are no bullets to add more punch into it... This seems so impractical?", Beta quietly muttered.
He was extremely interested in this weapon's engineering, scrutinizing every detail while comparing it to his previous knowledge about guns. It was such a fascinating idea to add in the use of soulpower, but compared to a normal gun, he thought it was a bit lacking. Of course, he couldn't really fully conclude that his hypothesis was right since he hadn't tried it yet, plus, the runes marked on it was a bit complicated and high-level. So, he could only guess that maybe the power of impact once fired would outweigh the bad sides such as the speed of traveling and the noise produced.
Johann, who noticed Beta's reaction to the weapon, was even more surprised. It was his first time seeing one up-close and personal. He had only heard about it from his elders in the Holz clan. His knowledge about it was minimal but he, for sure, know how valuable of an item it was. Even though they were quite known to be marksmen, their clan was comprised more of Wood Elementalists and archers, rather than the more domineering, gunners.
Gunners were rare too due to the weapon being too expensive and the requirement to use one needed the user to at least be at a high-level Elementalist. If used by lower levels, one could exhaust their soulpower and cause dire consequences such as death. Therefore, a single gun was considered a fortune already, especially by students. They've really hit the jackpot this time. Johann was about to touch the weapon himself but then after carefully looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar weapon, Beta casually stored the gun in his personal space.
"Eh? Dear leader… I wanna take a look too… just a touch… maybe even just the tip?", cried Johann in his head, muttering it quietly as he gave up the notion of asking his leader outright. He couldn't possibly request Beta to take it out again just so that he can ogle at it. It wasn't the right time and place after all. So, he just slowly lowered down his slightly raised hand and went back to guard the vicinity against beasts or any kind of enemies.
Even though Johann mumbled it softly, Beta was still able to hear it clearly and just shook his head while smirking. He knew that Johann wanted to take a look too but it really wasn't the time to be admiring the weapon. The matter at hand needed to be handled first though so, he looked at Elise once again.
"Do you have any other information that might be helpful for us?", Beta asked.
"They have a sign! I heard that guy over there talking about it! I'm not sure but I think it's a circle!", Elise answered while pointing at the unknown guy.
"A circle? That's all?", said Beta, a little glad that the girl was being cooperative.
"Yes! Definitely!", Elise almost shouted.
"Hmm… Is there still something else?", Beta said, looking a bit bored.
"P-Please don't kill me! I'm a really good healer! I can be of use! Please believe me!", Elise screamed, panicking then crying without end.
As Beta looked at the tears streaming down her face, his face softened a little and he squatted down to be on the same height as her as he wiped her tears away. She looked at him expectantly, a small smile surfacing on her face as she once again saw a ray of hope.
"We already have a full squad, sorry.", Beta said lightly, using the hand he had wiped her tears away with to release his void elemental soulpower, letting her head vanish instantly.
"Alright, I guess it's time to clean up! It'd be bad if someone knows what happened here. I'll just replenish my soulpower real quick and clean up then. Can I borrow some more of your mushrooms?", Beta asked while smiling at Johann.
Johann was a bit stumped at his sudden action. Even he had thought that Beta had gone soft for a moment. So, the scene of Elise's head disappearing baffled him greatly.
"E-Eh, sure...", Johann said, not really knowing how to comment to that.
It wasn't that he was opposed to killing her, but it was just too sudden of a change. Plus, the manner how Beta did it was too brutal! Showing kindness to give hope, then squashing it in the end. "Uwaah… I'm so glad he's not an enemy or else I'd die not knowing how…", Johann cried in his mind.
"Thanks!", Beta said delightedly.
Beta ate more of the mushrooms and enjoyed the feeling of the energy surging through him. The best thing about it was that there were no side effects despite the process of producing it and also the source of its energy. It was indeed a very convenient thing to ingest since it was rare to find something so pure in replenishing herbs or medicines. Especially at the moment where they were limited to what they acquired as supplies back at the camp which were only low-grade ones.
Usually, everything had at least some impurities, but because the human the mushrooms sprouted from had already filtered the soulpower to some extent, and adding to that, the mushroom filtering it once again, the soulpower became even purer. It was even to the point where there were barely any left. With Beta's void and death elemental soulpower devouring the last few dregs, they were not harming at all to him.
Beta sat down, ate some more mushrooms, and relaxed a bit. The fight was quite tense and he had been on edge the whole time. A little rest would be great for him so he didn't hesitate to take it easy. Looking into the sky which was still quite bright with clouds covering the sun's rays, then closing his eyes, as he felt a slight breeze hit his face every now and then. He sighed and smiled as he felt even better.
While Beta relaxed, Johann didn't just stand around. Even though he was exhausted himself, he was still in a far better situation compared to Beta who did so much more ever since last night. So, as a dutiful underling, he took action. He moved all of the corpses, took some mushrooms, and stacked the corpses on each other for easier disposal. Johann then put the body parts and intestines scattered around next to the pile as well and produced some Blood Roots that, through his control, swiftly sucked up all the blood stains on the ground.
Once Johann was finished doing what he was capable of, Beta finally opened his eyes again.
"Alright, let's finish things up here. We should meet up with the others soon and see if they're all okay. There's also the key which we still need to find. Although I'm not sure if the key we got will lead us there, we have to at least try.", Beta said, while at the same time releasing his soulpower to engulf the corpses in front of him.
Since the corpses weren't protected by soulpower anymore, Beta didn't have any problems accomplishing that. Of course, he expertly removed the mushrooms that Johann didn't remove yet before all this happened. Beta obviously wouldn't let go of such a good opportunity to get free food. The life that he had lived in the woods after waking up in the capsule made him enjoy mushrooms with a few pieces of meat quite a lot. So, even though Johann was looking at him oddly for taking the small ones with barely any energy in it, he still grabbed them anyway and swiftly stored it in his personal storage.
After clearing the corpses, Johann once more called forth the Blood Roots for the finishing touch, even going up to the roof where Beta had made the first kill to ensure they didn't miss anything. After that, they both gave the scene a second glance to check if everything was clean and properly covered up for any clues. Only when they were sure that they headed straight for the camp after changing his clothes and cleaning himself a bit as well.
Beta was sure that his squad would safely arrive there so he was anticipating to meet them again after so much happened. He also wanted to test the gun, but it wouldn't be appropriate to do it without researching more. Especially so, because he wasn't sure just exactly how much soulpower it would consume to even fire one.
Beta already had thoughts of equipping all of his squad members with one if the damage dealt is any good. The materials shouldn't be a problem either since he still got his rewards which he "won" from Chugum and he was also confident that he could reproduce it without the help of blacksmiths. He really couldn't wait to check it out for this would especially be a big help for their Water Elementalists as they had no real attack spell yet. The best they could do was make their enemy wet or slip which wasn't really any good for combat if they'll be left on their own.
It wasn't long before they arrived at the area where the camp was situated. As they got closer to the camp, Beta noticed that there were more squads in sight. The camp got bigger and it became more bustling than before.
"Strange… If there are so many people here, how come we didn't encounter many teams in the ruins? This seems a bit... weird.", Beta muttered.
No one really took notice of the two boys going into the camp. They looked just like any other squad that had lost most of their members in the ruins so the others just ignored them as if it was nothing new. Beta and Johann were glad about it and just walked up to a specific tent and entered it.
"We're back!", Beta said, looking at the people in front of him with a smile.
Beta was immensely shocked. He would've never thought that he would encounter something like this outside of the lab he grew up in. But once he looked closer at it, he noticed a difference. There were runes on its trigger."So, I'm guessing the trigger will absorb soulpower from the wielder and then shoot it as a replacement for bullets? But how is it any different from a normal arrow then? As far as I can see, there are no bullets to add more punch into it... This seems so impractical?", Beta quietly muttered.He was extremely interested in this weapon's engineering, scrutinizing every detail while comparing it to his previous knowledge about guns. It was such a fascinating idea to add in the use of soulpower, but compared to a normal gun, he thought it was a bit lacking. Of course, he couldn't really fully conclude that his hypothesis was right since he hadn't tried it yet, plus, the runes marked on it was a bit complicated and high-level. So, he could only guess that maybe the power of impact once fired would outweigh the bad sides such as the speed of traveling and the noise produced.Johann, who noticed Beta's reaction to the weapon, was even more surprised. It was his first time seeing one up-close and personal. He had only heard about it from his elders in the Holz clan. His knowledge about it was minimal but he, for sure, know how valuable of an item it was. Even though they were quite known to be marksmen, their clan was comprised more of Wood Elementalists and archers, rather than the more domineering, gunners.Gunners were rare too due to the weapon being too expensive and the requirement to use one needed the user to at least be at a high-level Elementalist. If used by lower levels, one could exhaust their soulpower and cause dire consequences such as death. Therefore, a single gun was considered a fortune already, especially by students. They've really hit the jackpot this time. Johann was about to touch the weapon himself but then after carefully looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar weapon, Beta casually stored the gun in his personal space."Eh? Dear leader I wanna take a look too just a touch maybe even just the tip?", cried Johann in his head, muttering it quietly as he gave up the notion of asking his leader outright. He couldn't possibly request Beta to take it out again just so that he can ogle at it. It wasn't the right time and place after all. So, he just slowly lowered down his slightly raised hand and went back to guard the vicinity against beasts or any kind of enemies.Even though Johann mumbled it softly, Beta was still able to hear it clearly and just shook his head while smirking. He knew that Johann wanted to take a look too but it really wasn't the time to be admiring the weapon. The matter at hand needed to be handled first though so, he looked at Elise once again."Do you have any other information that might be helpful for us?", Beta asked."They have a sign! I heard that guy over there talking about it! I'm not sure but I think it's a circle!", Elise answered while pointing at the unknown guy."A circle? That's all?", said Beta, a little glad that the girl was being cooperative."Yes! Definitely!", Elise almost shouted."Hmm Is there still something else?", Beta said, looking a bit bored."P-Please don't kill me! I'm a really good healer! I can be of use! Please believe me!", Elise screamed, panicking then crying without end.As Beta looked at the tears streaming down her face, his face softened a little and he squatted down to be on the same height as her as he wiped her tears away. She looked at him expectantly, a small smile surfacing on her face as she once again saw a ray of hope."We already have a full squad, sorry.", Beta said lightly, using the hand he had wiped her tears away with to release his void elemental soulpower, letting her head vanish instantly."Alright, I guess it's time to clean up! It'd be bad if someone knows what happened here. I'll just replenish my soulpower real quick and clean up then. Can I borrow some more of your mushrooms?", Beta asked while smiling at Johann.Johann was a bit stumped at his sudden action. Even he had thought that Beta had gone soft for a moment. So, the scene of Elise's head disappearing baffled him greatly."E-Eh, sure...", Johann said, not really knowing how to comment to that.It wasn't that he was opposed to killing her, but it was just too sudden of a change. Plus, the manner how Beta did it was too brutal! Showing kindness to give hope, then squashing it in the end. "Uwaah I'm so glad he's not an enemy or else I'd die not knowing how", Johann cried in his mind."Thanks!", Beta said delightedly.Beta ate more of the mushrooms and enjoyed the feeling of the energy surging through him. The best thing about it was that there were no side effects despite the process of producing it and also the source of its energy. It was indeed a very convenient thing to ingest since it was rare to find something so pure in replenishing herbs or medicines. Especially at the moment where they were limited to what they acquired as supplies back at the camp which were only low-grade ones.Usually, everything had at least some impurities, but because the human the mushrooms sprouted from had already filtered the soulpower to some extent, and adding to that, the mushroom filtering it once again, the soulpower became even purer. It was even to the point where there were barely any left. With Beta's void and death elemental soulpower devouring the last few dregs, they were not harming at all to him.Beta sat down, ate some more mushrooms, and relaxed a bit. The fight was quite tense and he had been on edge the whole time. A little rest would be great for him so he didn't hesitate to take it easy. Looking into the sky which was still quite bright with clouds covering the sun's rays, then closing his eyes, as he felt a slight breeze hit his face every now and then. He sighed and smiled as he felt even better.While Beta relaxed, Johann didn't just stand around. Even though he was exhausted himself, he was still in a far better situation compared to Beta who did so much more ever since last night. So, as a dutiful underling, he took action. He moved all of the corpses, took some mushrooms, and stacked the corpses on each other for easier disposal. Johann then put the body parts and intestines scattered around next to the pile as well and produced some Blood Roots that, through his control, swiftly sucked up all the blood stains on the ground.Once Johann was finished doing what he was capable of, Beta finally opened his eyes again."Alright, let's finish things up here. We should meet up with the others soon and see if they're all okay. There's also the key which we still need to find. Although I'm not sure if the key we got will lead us there, we have to at least try.", Beta said, while at the same time releasing his soulpower to engulf the corpses in front of him.Since the corpses weren't protected by soulpower anymore, Beta didn't have any problems accomplishing that. Of course, he expertly removed the mushrooms that Johann didn't remove yet before all this happened. Beta obviously wouldn't let go of such a good opportunity to get free food. The life that he had lived in the woods after waking up in the capsule made him enjoy mushrooms with a few pieces of meat quite a lot. So, even though Johann was looking at him oddly for taking the small ones with barely any energy in it, he still grabbed them anyway and swiftly stored it in his personal storage.After clearing the corpses, Johann once more called forth the Blood Roots for the finishing touch, even going up to the roof where Beta had made the first kill to ensure they didn't miss anything. After that, they both gave the scene a second glance to check if everything was clean and properly covered up for any clues. Only when they were sure that they headed straight for the camp after changing his clothes and cleaning himself a bit as well.Beta was sure that his squad would safely arrive there so he was anticipating to meet them again after so much happened. He also wanted to test the gun, but it wouldn't be appropriate to do it without researching more. Especially so, because he wasn't sure just exactly how much soulpower it would consume to even fire one.Beta already had thoughts of equipping all of his squad members with one if the damage dealt is any good. The materials shouldn't be a problem either since he still got his rewards which he "won" from Chugum and he was also confident that he could reproduce it without the help of blacksmiths. He really couldn't wait to check it out for this would especially be a big help for their Water Elementalists as they had no real attack spell yet. The best they could do was make their enemy wet or slip which wasn't really any good for combat if they'll be left on their own.It wasn't long before they arrived at the area where the camp was situated. As they got closer to the camp, Beta noticed that there were more squads in sight. The camp got bigger and it became more bustling than before."Strange If there are so many people here, how come we didn't encounter many teams in the ruins? This seems a bit... weird.", Beta muttered.No one really took notice of the two boys going into the camp. They looked just like any other squad that had lost most of their members in the ruins so the others just ignored them as if it was nothing new. Beta and Johann were glad about it and just walked up to a specific tent and entered it."We're back!", Beta said, looking at the people in front of him with a smile.
