Bang!
'-222,905!!!'
"Alright. Only ten left before this damned trial finally ends."
With his hands moving like clockwork as he armed his arquebus for another shot, a slightly relieved expression could be seen on the young man's somewhat haggard face.
Though Valyr felt his drive to see the trial through the end renewed by obtaining the skill that was now [Intermediate Firearm Mastery], the excitement brought by the skill did not last that long.
After all, with all things, the difference the skill made to his routine was only a slight boost to his Attack stat, as well as a slight decrease in between shots.
With that, it did not take long for the young man to occupy his mind with other things yet again as his body continued to move and fight against the primitive humanoids with the arquebus.
"Hngh…" Once he was done loading the arquebus up for the next shot, Valyr did a few basic stretches, considering he had been lying prone for a great majority of the trial.
After that, he took a look at the remaining resources he had that was needed to shoot the arquebus.
"Less than half left, but still more than enough to see this trial to the end."
Seeing that there was still plenty of leeway relative to how much work there was left to do, Valyr nodded in satisfaction as a soft smile crept up his face.
Getting back into position as he aimed the arquebus towards one of the ten stragglers, the young man also took note of the gory sight that existed below the tower.
"To be honest, I thought the trial would do something similar to what occurred back in the Trial of Myriad Aberrations," muttered Valyr, eventually shrugging his shoulders as he activated [Extended Charge].
"Guess not."
During the Trial of Myriad Aberrations, Valyr recalled quite well that the corpses of the aberrations were scattered through the barren land, similar to how the corpses of the primitive humanoids were strewn around the tower he had erected.
He also remembered that there was next to no spillage of blood from the aberrations whatsoever while he was taking the trial.
On the other hand, the surroundings around the tower made it seem like the tower was erected on a sea of blood, with chunks of flesh and random parts from the primitive humanoids making it quite the gory sight.
'Then again, I was relying on [Tide of the Dark Night] during that time,' thought the young man himself sometime later.
'Compared to a skill like that, using the arquebus is definitely the dirtier approach.'
"[Full Burst]!"
Sensing that [Extended Charge] had reached its limit, Valyr went ahead and infused more mana into the barrel as he let the arquebus do its thing.
Bang!
'-222,905!!!'
Once more, a faint blue bullet began to zoom through the air, eventually landing squarely onto the forehead of the target Valyr had picked.
With the energy and momentum imbued within it, the bullet found no difficulty in piercing through the primitive humanoid, causing its head to explode to a thousand bits as it continued to fly unhindered.
Bang!
'-222,905!!!'
Surprisingly, after hitting the first primitive humanoid, the bullet still had enough momentum to land on another primitive humanoid as it struck the latter at its throat.
Seeing this, a faint smile appeared on Valyr's face as he tallied two more kills in his mind.
"Two down, eight left to go."
Muttering these words to himself, the young man took in a deep breath as he went through everything yet another time.
…
"[Full Burst]!"
Bang!
'-222,905!!!'
Having allowed [Extended Charge] to reach its limit, Valyr let the arquebus' ferocity take center stage as the bullet it shot headed straight towards the target he had chosen.
Of course, just like most of the other shots he had fired so far, the bullet cleanly pierced through the target's head and caused it to explode into chunks of blood and flesh.
Ding!
Watching the final straggler fall to the ground, a wave of excitement swept across Valyr just as he heard a notification sound resound in his mind.
At the same time, a wave of relief swept across his body as he heard the trial's monotonous voice finally echo throughout the trial grounds.
'Though you have chosen a style of combat that had been long forgotten by the past, all of your opponents have undoubtedly been rendered lifeless with the style you've chosen.'
Through this, you have shown that the might you've revealed in the past is only a fraction of your true might. You have shown that your might extends beyond your previous confines, confines that force you to apply your might through what is considered the norm.'
'However, these confines shall break in due time with the upcoming trials prepared for you, allowing you to show your true might to the entire world.'
'Congratulations, trial taker. You have successfully cleared the Trial of Millennium Beings.'
Rumble…
At the very moment the voice was finished congratulating Valyr for completing the first trial, the tower of earth he created started to rumble, prompting him to hastily store all of the items he had taken out back into the spatial bracelet.
Crash!
Not long after, the entire tower of earth began to crumble down, dragging Valyr down along with it.
"[False Wings of the Shadow Wyvern]!"
Whoosh!
Nevertheless, with the movement skills in his arsenal, it did not take long for the young man to get out from the mess as he flew away from the tower.
Consistently flapping his wings as he stayed in mid-air, a wry smile appeared on Valyr's face as he watched the tower of earth turn into rubble. "Guess I'll have to make the tower again if the next trial also involves combat."
"At the very least, the problem regarding the primitive humanoids' bodies seem to be solved."
Continuing to stare at where the tower of earth previously was, Valyr watched as the blood and flesh of the primitive humanoids were seemingly being absorbed by the ground, gradually returning to its original color.
By the time a few minutes, all traces of the earth tower and the primitive humanoids had already disappeared, instead leaving Valyr with the same barren ground he had started with.
Swoosh!
Returning to the barren ground, Valyr dispelled the wings he had created, feeling a bit of heartache at the fact that he had to wait for a while before being able to use it again.
"Speaking of a while, it's been a long while since I began taking on the first trial," muttered Valyr to himself.
At the beginning of the trial, Valyr could still keep track of time since he had more or less found a way to keep things not so monotonous.
However, after he had obtained [Intermediate Firearm Mastery], he felt as if he had thrown caution to the wind as he focused all of his attention towards finishing the trial.
Scratching the back of his head at the thought, a wry smile appeared on his face.
"Whether I've taken half a day to complete the trial or more than that, it doesn't really matter." Valyr shrugged his shoulders.
"All that matters is that I'm now moving onto the second trial."
With the monotonous voice not saying anything after it had dismantled the earth tower and cleaned up the remains of the primitive humanoids, Valyr thought that the Gates of Awakening had given him some time to take a breather.
Accepting it wholeheartedly, the young man soon sat on the ground as he took out a couple of potions to replenish his reserves.
While replenishing his health and mana pool, Valyr went ahead and brought up his notification screen, recalling that it had made a sound the very moment he had killed the last primitive humanoid.
Ding!
Taking a look at the screen before him, the young man instantly went silent as he read through the notifications he had received.
By the time he had finished reading through all of it, Valyr could only utter out a single sound.
"Huh."
[Throughout the entire history of Veldanyr so far, you are the first to bring back a lost weapon type from the grave, forging the first firearm to ever exist on Veldanyr.]
[However, not only are you the first to bring the weapon to life, but you are also the first to use it in combat, killing a foe at speeds unimaginable to any other human.]
[Now, as the first gunslinger of Veldanyr, you have continued to make great use of the firearms, enlightening yourself in the usage and essence of firearms in the process.]
[With a thousand enemies having fallen under the bullets you've shot, there is no doubt that the path of firearms is one that allows you to achieve high levels of destruction.]
[Yet, due to some circumstances, you have rejected the option to become a true gunslinger in the past. Instead, you have chosen to stick with your current path.]
[Fortunately, the heavens are forgiving, understanding the plight that you're currently going with.]
[And so, the heavens want to give you a second chance, hoping that you could revive the art of firearms on Veldanyr to its entirety.]
[You have received a special subclass quest: The First Gunslinger (Veldanyr).]
Skipping over all of the text that described his feats regarding firearms, Valyr had a slight frown on his face after taking a look at the last notification.
'A subclass quest…' thought Valyr to himself, feeling as if the quest would force him to swap his current subclass for another one.
With that in mind, the young man felt the urge to reject the quest outright once more.
However, rather than do so, he instead recalled the text that came before the quest, talking about how the heavens had given him a second chance.
Because of that, he decided to take a look at the quest's description and see if there was anything different about the quest aside from the class now becoming a subclass.
Fortunately, there was.
From what he could infer through the text it contained, rather than replace his current subclass…
The quest would instead give him a second subclass.
