Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (17 page)

Regal isn’t stupid either.
With the pattern of how fast he gained levels in ‘Cartography’, his inherent
skill ‘Future Sight’, and now ‘Forging: Beginner,’ he understands why he seems
to have little to no talent in martial or alchemy skills. His talent lies in
crafting and miscellaneous skills – a completely unprecedented talent never
before seen in the world.

Regal’s experience at
Atelier Gun & Bullet is a turning point for him. He now knows where his
talents lie and how best to train. His decision is to be a crafter, someone who
supports others and makes them stronger. If his other squad members can
increase their strength, that will be a great benefit to him as well as them.

During the week, he trains
his martial and alchemy skills every evening and night. Two times a week, Regal
practices ‘Cartography’ with Veronica and Piora and earns four silver coins
from that. With the three silver coins on the weekend, Regal’s money problems
have been completely solved.

For the next three weeks,
Regal returns to Atelier Gun & Bullet to train under Tanner’s guidance.
During that time, not only do his martial and alchemy skills break through the
level 10 bottleneck, but his ‘Forging: Beginner’ reaches level 24.

The forging Tier 2 Divine
Art is a passive ability called ‘Molding’, which allows him to create hardened
clay molds. This slowed down his leveling progress greatly as Tanner made him
study dozens of different mold designs, and the dozen ways in which they can be
modified.

The Tier 3 Divine Art is
also a passive ability, which increases his strength by four points. The bonus
increases Regal’s strength by forty percent, making it easier to swing the
hammer afterwards. If his strength increases enough that he can wield a heavier
hammer, he will be able to refine iron of a better quality.

Nearly all of Regal’s
other skills also broke through the first bottleneck and entered the second
tier as well as gaining new skills. From ‘Flame Forge Alchemy’, he chose
‘Radiant Enchant’, a Tier 2 Divine Art that will enchant a piece of held
equipment with the ‘Radiant Flame’.

‘Ice Heart Alchemy’ grew
with ‘Frost Fog’, a non-offensive Divine Art that uses fog to block an enemy’s
line of sight, allowing for an easier escape. ‘Vigorous Earth Alchemy’ gained
‘Heavy Step’, which will make the caster’s feet heavier. It helps steady their
balance, but must not be used in water or they will sink.

‘Revolver Proficiency’ now
includes ‘Target Lock’, a Divine Art that allows the caster to mentally lock
onto a single target and be aware of that enemy’s position, as long as they are
within a hundred feet. ‘Cartography’ learned ‘Erase’, a passive Divine Art that
allows the user to erase some or all of what they have drawn.

Many of these Divine Arts
can only be used efficiently in certain scenarios, but the more skills and
Divine Arts a hunter has, the more situations they can adapt to.

***************************************************

Regal’s academy students
are once again standing out in front of the large clock tower in the center of
the city – the entrance to Theore Substructure. It has been a month since they
last came, and everyone has different emotions. Some people are excited, while
others are nervous, or even afraid.

Regal’s outlook is one of
determination. He stands in a group with Veronica, Astore, Kilde and Piora.

“Piora, would you like to
be in our squad?” Veronica ask Piora who has become one of our group.

“Yes! I would really like
that,” Piora replies cheerfully.

Not a single member of the
squad is nervous or afraid of entering the dungeon again, and each of them
bears a serious expression.

Mr. Razor stands in the
middle of the entrance to the dungeon and loudly clears his throat in order to
gain the students’ attention. “Students, entering the dungeon will be the same
as before. Work hard to become stronger, and don’t die. Remember, becoming
strong is not just about levelling up. Strategy is also a form of strength. Now
that you have studied the enemy, you should be able to predict their movements
better and fight them more efficiently.”

Many of the students
enthusiastically nod their heads in response to the teacher’s speech. Some of
the students who died last time can’t seem to find their confidence however, as
their minds are filled with perilous situations that could end up with them
dieing again.

Upon the teacher’s signal,
all the students, whether they are in a squad or alone, enter the clock tower
and descend into the Theore Substructure. The guards posted outside
nonchalantly start fixing their clothes and don’t even spare a glance at the
students entering the dungeon.

Veronica’s squad leads the
rest of the students entering the dungeon. They quickly enter the dungeon’s
first large room before disappearing into one of the random pathways leading
away.

“Why are we leaving so
quickly?” Piora asks while running alongside Veronica.

Veronica glances behind
the group before quietly saying, “To escape anyone who wants to kill us because
we are Soulless. There are no rules preventing them from doing so down here.”

“Actually, big sis, I
don’t think they will this time,” Regal points out diligently, his attention
fixed on Piora.

“Why do you think that?”

“Well, Piora is with us.
She is not a Soulless and quite popular, so it is unlikely that they will
attack with her around.”

“Then it’s a good thing
I’m a part of your squad,” Piora exclaims, puffing out her flat chest proudly
in the process.

Regal pays little
attention to the enthusiastic redhead, instead focusing on the walls to be
prepared for any enemy encounters. Five minutes later, a nostalgic scratching
comes from between the pipe-walls. A scrawny level 1 Mutant Rat’s head emerges
as it prepares to jump out.

“Keep running and don’t
stop,” Veronica resolutely commands the squad.

Feeling like they will not
be able to make it past the rat and will take a decent amount of damage passing
by, Regal spies a path branching off just beyond the emerging rat and says,
“Big sis, we won’t make it past safely if we just keep running. It will slow us
down and we will take too much damage for a single rat. We should attack it as
quickly as possible while approaching it and then flee down a random path
ahead. The network of tunnels will quickly get complicated so losing any
pursuers will be easy.”

“Very well, we will do
that. Draw your weapons!” Veronica barely hesitates before following through
with Regal’s suggestion. It isn’t that she thinks her plan is wrong, but she
places the utmost trust in Regal.

“I have a lot of ‘Ice
Bullets’ that I have been saving up. It isn’t much, but I hope everyone will
take a case of them.” Regal and the rest of the squad pause so he can pass a
case of the bullets to each of them.

Loading their pistols with
the new bullets, the squad of five charges toward the Mutant Rat now in the
middle of the path. Rather than the sound of gunpowder exploding, the sound of
ice cracking echoes in the tunnel as the ‘Ice bullets’ are fired at the rat.
Regal and Piora’s bullets are the most accurate, predicting the rat’s movements
and hitting it.

“Fire in front... now to
the left... to the left again,” Regal speaks out and instructs the other
Soulless on where to aim.

Following his advice,
their accuracy nearly doubles. The Mutant Rat only has a sliver of health left
by the time the two forces collide. Kilde suffers a slash on his leg, but Regal
quickly fires his last bullet and kills the rat.

Not waiting for anyone to
catch up, the squad leaves the rat’s corpse and quickly dashes away from the
area. Multiple rats begin crawling out of the walls behind them and Regal gets
a strong feeling they’ll soon be attacked from behind. It isn’t just the sound
of the rats emerging from the walls, either.  The hairs on the back of his
neck begin to stand up, and deep down Regal is convinced that something bad is
about to happen.  He’s never felt this way before and can’t explain why
he’s so sure an attack is imminent.

“Astore, please use ‘Earth
Shield’ to block of the path behind us,” Regal announces hurriedly once they
enter one of the forks in the path.

Following his request,
Astore casts the alchemy and successfully blocks off the path. Moments later,
Regal hears some of the rats scratching at the shield, followed by gunshots.
The whole squad quickly realizes that there was more than just rats behind
them.

Piora thinks that that
it’s a coincidence that people are behind them; Veronica, Astore and Kilde
conclude the likelihood that they have ill intentions to be higher than not
having them; Regal is almost certain that they are here to cause trouble or
even attack them.

Not waiting around, the
squad of five quickly move on and leave the area. Once they are at a safe
location, Regal starts making a map of where they have travelled so far. It is
only a disposable map, so he draws it inside a notebook with a pen. Not only
does he draw the layout of the dungeon, he takes extra care to note where the
other party was with a small cross on the map. If they run into them again, his
thoughts are that he may be able to predict their path and to avoid them in the
future.

“Little brother, you are
becoming more and more reliable,” Veronica says while showing a rare smile.

“I only want to help our
squad, big sis.”

Veronica leans in close
and give him a hug that could either be of affection or something else while
saying, “I know. I am proud and because of that I also have a request for you.
Will you become the squad captain?”

“W-what do you mean?
That’s your position.” Regal becomes flustered, pushing Veronica back away from
him.

“I want you to become the
squad captain. Everyone else agrees, right?”

Kilde and Astore nod their
head while Piora averts her eyes. Regal notices this and hopes that Piora won’t
leave the squad if he becomes captain. Even without his reply, Veronica presses
a few icons on a translucent display and a notification appears in front of
Regal.

A new list of commands in
the squad options have also been added, which Regal has never had to use
before. They involve promoting and demoting members, removing and adding
members, locating all the squad members and even sending a message to all
members.

“I... I really don’t know
what to say. There is no need for this,” Regal says with a troubled look.

Piora glances at him and
snorts, “Stop complaining about it. Veronica decided on it so do it for her.”

Regal silently bows his
head, finally accepting the role as squad captain and expressing his gratitude
to Veronica for her trust. Studying the map he has begun making, he quickly
leads the party away from their current location and to a new area.

Regal’s agility is greatly
impacted while holding the notebook and drawing the map, but it is still
possible for him t0 draw his pistol with a single hand. His most important role
as the leader, however, is directing how each person should attack, ensuring
that no one gets in another’s way and that they fight efficiently.

From Regal’s new outlook
as squad captain, he notices the different traits each member has. Kilde is
skilled at using the combat knife when rats get close, his flexibility is even
above Piora’s, who moves around as agilely as a cat. Astore’s uncanny aptitude
with alchemy is as shocking as he had thought it would be.

Veronica’s exceptional at
using the right control skills in each situation. Regal talks extensively with
her to learn her skills so he knows what she can do in a fight. He tries to
talk with Piora about hers, but she only gives him short answers in response to
his questions. He still discovers a considerable amount about her from their
conversation.

Piora’s inherent skill is
‘Parallel Formulation’, a miscellaneous skill that allows her to cast more than
one alchemy at a time. She can currently use two different alchemies at the
same time but it is quite taxing on her mana so she prefers to not use it. Her
strongest skills are her martial skills and a few flame-based alchemy skills.

By lunch time, Regal’s
squad has killed over a hundred Mutant Rats, twenty of which were  the
stronger variants. Regal’s experience toward his next level has reached 83
percent, while Veronica, Astore and Kilde are at 94 percent since they didn’t
die last time. Piora is quite a bit ahead at 21 percent toward level 3.

All of the loot dropped by
the Mutant Rats is split between the members as equally as possible. Regal’s
share includes twenty low quality medicinal herbs, two broken level 2 bronze
combat knives, seven hardened rat teeth, 27 bronze coins, 2 ‘Vigorous Earth
Alchemy’ skill books and an assortment of other random items with little to no
value.

Regal and Piora are elated
at the squad’s increased efficiency while the others blandly say that Regal
becoming the squad captain was the correct decision. Despite speaking of the
matter with little emotion, they appear to also be slightly pleased.

Knowing that his cooking
is terrible, Regal decided to spend a little extra money the other day and
purchased some pre-made food to store in his inventory.