Chapter 104: Changing Class

“Hah…” I sighed for the umpteenth time while looking at my status screen as I walked toward my seinjet from school. The reward hadn’t cashed in yet. It still showed the pending status.

“Yuri!!” Alice hugged me from behind. “You are going to ruin your beautiful face if you keep sighing like that, Yuri. What’s wrong? Anything I can help with? Maybe I can pinch your cheek to bring your mood up a little?”

“Nah. It’s just the reward hasn’t cashed in.” I answered while boarding my Seinjet.

“Reward? Ah, the twenty thousand points reward from your secret quest. So you have cleared that quest, huh? Wow, amazing! Wan-nyan, where is the report? I wanna see. Is it available? By the way, now that the quest is completed, I can talk about it, right?”

A dog then materialized beside her. “Hm… The report is locked under classified information. Unless it is crucial, you should not openly talk about it. It is not marked as absolute secrecy, unlike the active quest itself, but it seems to be sensitive information.”

“Now I am curious!”

“You can have it. Just don’t say anything, alright.” I said as I parsed the report to her. The higher-ups and the conglomerate had access to this information. What is a harmless bakery girl gonna do? Freya would probably grill me and be disappointed in me later if she knew. LingShi and Lexus would definitely act hostile toward me now.

I checked Enra and NewStar’s stock price this morning, and their stock had gone down by over 10% despite there being no official news about it. Poor employees and innocent investors were definitely getting scammed out of their money now. Some specialists speculated that Enra and NewStar will now start rising as they have seen the worst of it. They thought this stock price decline was a trend during trials.

“Of course! I swear on my soul gem!”

“Don’t swear upon your soul gem nonchalantly. I deny your oath.” I returned back the oath she gave me. “Just be prudent.”

“Yes, Yuri! Let me hug you!”

“No.”

“Hah… Let’s see what our awesome Black Lily had seen… Huh…” Alice stopped in her merry tracks. Her eyes widened in horror as she watched the recording shown by her familiar. Her familiar must have also explained to her what I had seen. Since we were now inside my Seinjet, I took the opportunity to shift.

“Sebastian, please go to the Guardian Command,” I said after transforming into Black Lily.

“Yes, Miss Lily.”

“What is this? How cruel!!” Alice, who was staring at the video, suddenly recoiled and shouted at me.

“Please be prudent, okay? Your familiar can fill in the details about why.”

“Ugh… I can’t believe they did such a thing. Poor Freya… Her father was nasty. But I kinda feel for her. Were all conglomerates like this? Except you, of course.”

I glared at her. But I couldn’t fully deny her either. There might come a time when Kageyama would have to make hard choices.

I went to the simulator once I arrived at the Guardian Command leaving Shining to her own device. I wanted to test the new bullets I had gotten from the vault—the masterwork versions. Inside the simulator, I could test them without expending the real ones in my inventory.

“What enemy do you wish to fight, Lily?”

“Let’s start with Gloams. Four Gloams to test each bullet. No, make that five. Number five is for normal FMJ bullet.”

I then tested all the bullets. Flame bullets incinerated the Gloam, leaving it in cinders a few minutes later. Ice bullets exploded and froze it solid for almost thirty minutes. But when the ice wore off, the Gloam was fine. The dark bullet didn’t seem to do much except make it angry, but Felicia assured me its senses were in disarray. It couldn’t see me and was simply swinging its club haphazardly.

The last one—the AP round—blew a baseball-sized hole in its head.

“Testing two, the demon knights. Then the floating metal. Then the demon general, then the behemoth.” I tested my bullets against all the enemies I had met. It turned out that only the armor-piercing round was able to kill the demon knight in one hit—and only if it struck the head. Unlike with the gloams, the bullet didn’t create a baseball-sized hole, but it penetrated the armor.

“I should have bought more armor-piercing rounds…” I regretted my decision.

“Armor-piercing is your damage dealer. Ice bullets are used to slow your enemies, while flame bullets immolate them, dealing damage over time and distracting them,” Felicia said.

“So armor-piercing is for killing strikes, while the others are for delaying or disrupting. Got it.” I nodded. “By the way, I know it might be wasteful, but I could load these bullets into my other guns, right?”

“Of course. I would recommend a Hecate assault rifle. You can adjust it to be semi-automatic or full auto.”

“These can even pierce a behemoth skin. Wouldn’t I be able to kill it if I had hundreds of rounds?”

“Yes. Technically, you could kill it if it stayed still for three minutes and you had over six hundred rounds. But that would mean wasting over six thousand points.”

“...”

“You could also kill it with a masterclass spear or glaive and less strikes if it stayed still while you chopped at its neck,” Felicia said.

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be realistic. I’d need to shoot it in the same place near the heart. Sorry, I was just dreaming.” I nodded.

“It is fine. Every idea is welcome, and this simulation is made perfectly to test such strategies.”

“Alright. I think I get how powerful the new bullets are. Let’s move on.” I turned off the simulation.

I then strolled about, glancing toward a new corner in the Guardian Command room. Shining was there, browsing some wares with a sales agent.

“Guardians, buy a decoy now. It might save your life.”

“For gun users! Stop using Zenith technology and buy our locally made products! We humans are masters of using guns. Now that we can use enchantments, Anathema is no longer a problem! Black Silverbane bullets for beginners, Black FMJ bullets for experts!”

“Sword users, please have a look at our carefully crafted swords! Only fifty points each—it’s much cheaper than buying from the gate. We also accept custom orders for seventy points!” Other salesgirls desperately promoted their goods.

Shining was there, looking at bullets and arrows. The breakthrough in Arcane technology had revived the economy. Now the Guardian Command had something to sell to both the Zenith and the Guardians.

“This enchanted APFSDS costs two hundred points per bullet! You’ve gotta be kidding me!”

“This is the pinnacle of human technology, my dear Guardians. This bullet can even penetrate a behemoth. With a Black Silverbane core along with its tungsten tip, even a behemoth will prove no problem.”

“That salesman is lying. I have seen the stats. An APFSDS round will certainly penetrate a behemoth better than masterwork armor-piercing bullets. However, killing a behemoth in a single shot is an overstatement,” Felicia said. “It depends on the gunner’s dexterity and the bonus their gun bestows upon them.”

“We can already create a masterwork vault bullet, huh? We certainly have leaped quite far.” I knew salesgirls often exaggerated things, so I didn’t mind. The fact that it was better than masterwork vault bullets intrigued me.

“Lily! Are you done training? Browsing for guns?” Alice turned to me when her dog realized I was approaching.

“Bullets. Not guns. Excuse me, can I see that bullet? APFDSD?”

“Ah, it is an APFSDS bullet, Miss Guardian. Short for Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot. Are you a gun user? We have a dedicated gun barrel for it. You can choose the light version or the heavy version. The super version needs a dedicated tank barrel, but you can store it with dimensional storage, right? So it poses no problem.” The salesgirl promoted her wares excitedly. She saw I had a sniper rifle on my back, so she identified me as a real customer.

“The bullet is very expensive… Even a Masterclass bullet only costs 10 points…” I complained. I wanted it, but I had no points for it. I had made a mistake—I shouldn’t have upgraded so fast.

“Well… I agree that the price is expensive. The unenchanted round's price was only 30 points. It skyrocketed because of the lack of Anathema essence,” the salesgirl said.

“I see. Do you have the unenchanted ones then?”

“Sure. That would be 25 points each. A discount for our first customer.”

“... I will take five.”

[Purchased: Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot x5!]
[-125 Points]
[Remaining Points: 45]

“Hm? Why would you want unenchanted ones?” Shining turned to me.

“Hm… I would like to dabble a bit in crafting, I guess?” I replied. I remembered I had a special class in enchanting called Alchemy Enchanting, granted to me as thanks for discovering enchanting for humanity.

“You would change your class?” Shining asked.

“Is it bad? I think it would be good to try new classes. It’s not like I would suddenly become non-combatant if I changed into an enchanter, right?” I turned toward Felicia.

“That is correct. In fact, Guardians are encouraged to test various classes. You would barely lose 10% of combat power. And you can always switch back to your previous class after a month.”

“Hm… I wonder if I should dabble as an enchanter too. Ah, but I don’t have any essence.” Shining looked at the bullet hard. Well, I had essence. That’s why I wanted to dabble in enchanting.

“Thanks for the information, miss. I shall buy five of the enchanted APFSDS bullets,” I said. The recent events had left me weary. I wanted to rest for a while, laying low—maybe taking up a few patrolling jobs while at it.

“Lily. Are you browsing for weapons?” Freya came to me. She had left Enra and now she took a job at Guardian Command’s Response Unit. She will deploy when a high-ranking Usurpation rift appears inside Eden.

“Hello, Freya. Yes. I am looking for new bullets.” I bowed.

“I see. Happy shopping. I just want to say hi. Sorry for interrupting. Bye-bye.” She wore a sad smile and left. I guess the events of the previous days still left her scarred.

“That was weird.” Shining tilted her head.

“She went through a lot. Just give her some alone time,” I said.

“You are right.”

Felicia told me Freya had canceled all of her contracts and decided to lay low. She had also quit being Enra’s Magical Girl and reassigned herself to Guardian’s. What a shame. Contracts, ad promotions, and so forth were crucial for MGs. They were one of the few ways MGs could generate points besides fighting Anathema.

“... Should you be saying that, Black Lily? You haven’t taken any contracts with advertisers ever since you joined.”

“... There was no one who came to me.”

“Dark MGs were notorious for evading public events. You need to be the one to initiate contact,” Felicia said.

“I shall refuse.” I turned. It’s not like I was that desperate for points. I could always take some patrolling duties to gather them. “So, how do I change classes?”

“On the floor above this one, we will go toward the class-changing room. Let’s go.” Felicia led the way.

I wonder how enchanting works. Will it be the same as that time?