After Fatima displayed her skills once, she quickly taught me everything I need to know. At once, we started on actual training.
"I, I can't slip it in..."
While I was trying what she taught, I was slightly troubled by what to do. Fatima held my hand and guided it forward instead.
"That's the wrong hole. How many times should I tell you this? It's right here, over here~."
The tip entered as soon as Fatima guided my hand. However, it was so tight that I can't push it any further.
"Why isn't it sliding inside?! I did as you taught me to though..."
I got frustrated as it wouldn't enter even when I forcefully shove it in.
"Ah, it's slanted. That's why it won't enter. Try moving this here..."
Fatima adjusted my grip and like magic, it quickly slid deep inside.
"Great~! Now, aim forward and shoot!"
After loading the unfamiliar bullet inside the out-of-place chamber, I quickly and excitedly aimed the sniper rifle toward the practice target. I fixed my breathing, peered through the scope, and placed my finger over the trigger. Then, with a loud bang, a bullet flew and smashed a random place on the wall far from the target.
Wait, what? You thought I was doing something else? No way! Even in my previous life, this is my first time touching a real gun. What kind of guy wouldn't get excited about this?!
After my first failed shot, Fatima nodded her head in admiration.
"Pretty good stance and aim! However, your trigger finger jerked the rifle, so you need to fix that."
She quickly instructed me on proper trigger handling. After that, I repeated loading the bullet, aiming, and shooting. On my 10th attempt, the bullet finally grazed the target.
"So close!"
I cheered as I prepared to load another bullet. However, Fatima stopped me from doing so.
"This should be enough for now. Next, we'll move to pistols."
Like that, Fatima showed me the third form of her weapon.
From what she told me during our discussion, her weapon was the latest model of the variable hot-weapon series which had a total of 12 different forms. All forms are of guns or other things that shoot projectiles, each with its pros and cons.
However, right now, only the SMG, sniper, and pistol forms was available. It seems that after a long time of usage, the other forms got damaged and couldn't be used.
"I don't have the equipment nor the materials to repair it so I'm stuck here. With little to no way to fight."
Fatima sadly claimed when I asked her about repairing it.
Like that, Fatima's lessons on shooting continued for God knows how long. We only stopped training when my stomach was loudly raising a complaint that it was empty.
As I ate alone, Fatime went to deliver Fang and Ember's portions to them. I wondered what Fatima eats usually but found out that since she was technically sealed inside too, she wasn't troubled by physiological events like hunger.
She doesn't need to sleep, eat, or drink. It's a wonderful blessing for a gamer who wants to play games all night long for several days straight. However, to Fatima, it was nothing but a bitter reminder that she couldn't leave this place.
"I'm back! Have you finished eating?"
As soon as Fatima returned, we immediately resumed training.
Since the pistols were similar to the SMG that needs to be wielded on both hands, it took quite a while for me to get used to reloading it. Not to mention my accuracy, I can't even make the bullet fly toward the direction I aimed at.
"Why is it not working as I imagined?"
I muttered under my breath as I reloaded the pistols once more. Fatima heard it and thought.
"Probably... It's because you knew about guns before. Your knowledge is getting in the way of you using my weapon. It's like trying to use a shaver as a peeler."
Her words made me think.
"Wait, how is it different from other guns?"
"It's the bullets."
Fatima declared as she shows an unused rifle bullet.
"My gun's bullets aren't made with gunpowder but are instead powered with wind and fire elemental energy."
She explained as she removed the shell from the tip, releasing a mix of green and red light in my eyes.
"If I were to use normal gunpowder bullets, then it wouldn't even scratch high-level demon's skin. And, in a sealed place like this, I wouldn't have ways to replenish bullets with gunpowder right?"
She further explained.
Her bullets were special, it seems. Each tip and case are embedded with her Void power enabling them to return to her pockets after they were shot. There, they would be stuffed with wind and fire elemental energy before getting fused, creating a new bullet. Any deformation would be fixed through the use of Fatima's excess energy.
However, even after I heard that her bullets are not gunpowder based, I still don't get why I can't hit the target with the pistol. I analyzed my state, the gun's state, the environment's state, and the target's state as I slowly shot one bullet after another. Then, it finally dawned on me.
"Energy manipulation!"
Since the bullets were fired through the combination of wind and fire energy, then the higher the control I have over the energy before and after the explosion, I could eliminate the randomness of the bullet's flight!
However, even though I noticed it, my energy control still wasn't up to par. Even though I could use skills that had very complicated energy manipulation required like [Shadow Movement], the techniques used to manipulate the needed energy were already included with the skill.
In short, if I want to shoot fast and straight, I need to learn manual energy manipulation from scratch. Fortunately, I am someone who can actually "see" energy. I watched the energy inside my body and how it reacted to my attempts on manipulating it. Using those attempts as a basis, I improved the next attempt, and so on.
In just a short while, I managed to reach a passable level with energy manipulation. The pistol, which needed a much higher energy manipulation skill compared to the other two, was finally able to graze the targets set far away.
"Congratulations! You've managed to hit the target using all three forms~!"
Fatima clapped as she congratulated me on my achievement.
"With just a little more brushing up, I think you would be fit to be my true successor."
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