Chapter 52

“Good afternoon, everyone. I’m happy to see that all five of you got your weapons in on time, though you were cutting it pretty close there, Mason,” Ryx said, holding his thumb and forefinger very close together, getting a laugh out of us. “Alright, as I mentioned yesterday, everyone will be running the course six times today. Three times with the stock pulse rifle, and three times with your customized version. We’ll be skipping the first part of our usual training since it would take all day to run the course thirty times, otherwise.”

“This is going to work like it does normally, so one of you will do a run, then the next person will go, and the next, et cetera. The difference will be that every time you go through the course, you will use the opposite weapon. We’ll be starting with the stock version as a warmup round, and then get move onto your customized version for the second run through.”

“Before that, we’re going to do a little show and tell, though. Each of you will come up and explain what you’ve done with your rifle. Who wants to go first?”

Mason immediately walked forward and picked his rifle off the table, it was largely the same, but he did change a few things.

“You just want me to move through the parts one by one?” Mason asked.

“And give your thought process as to why you selected that part,” Ryx nodded.

“Alright then. Jonathan was the only one who had seen my first build, so he probably noticed that I decided to go with a shorter barrel. I originally had the twenty-two inch barrel on, but the weight and the small variety of parts necessitated switching to a shorter one. I went with the eighteen inch barrel instead, which allowed me to get rid of the WA-22 buttstock. That thing is absolutely awful. Instead, I went with the WA-26, primarily for its comfort. It seems that Warvyn Arms realised how bad it was, but I’m amazed it took them four iterations.”

“For the pistol grip, I went with the BT-102. I would’ve liked to go with the WA Pulse 5 pistol grip, but it’s too small for my hand,” he said, holding his up. “Moving onto the handgrip, I went with the WA HEX 1-3, both for how light it is and for increased cooling. If I had gone with one of the handguards that completely surrounds the barrel then more heat would have been contained and it would take longer to cool down.”

“I put on the BT E2 foregrip for two reasons. The first is that it’s the only canted foregrip that was given to us. As you can see, it is on a forty-five degree angle that means that my hand is below the barrel and to the left, offering a little bit more control than a usual foregrip might provide. The second reason is that it allows me to more easily use my WA Eaphin 04 canted red dot sight mounted further forward on the barrel. If I had a regular handgrip on and wanted to rotate the gun so I could use a canted sight, then I would be required to hold my left hand at an awkward angle. I did try it both with the BT E2 and the more normal BT C3, but I didn’t like the latter.”

“Topping everything off, I mounted the WA Drenian 07 variable-zoom scope. The range is between two times zoom and six times zoom, which would allow me to engage targets at mid to long range. If I need to engage targets in close range, then I’ll switch to the canted red dot,” he finished, first aiming down the scope before rotating the gun and demonstrating the canted sight.”

“Nicely done. What were the final characteristics?” Ryx asked.

“Thirty-point-three inches long with a weight of four-point-eight-eight pounds.”

Ryx nodded. “Okay, who’s next?”

I stood up and walked over, retrieving my pulse rifle and then presenting it. “Both Mason and I are pretty big guys, so it’s likely that many of our parts will be the same. That said, I went through many different variations yesterday, but eventually went with the first setup I put together, though with two key changes. As you can see, I have both the BT E2 and the Eaphin 04 canted red dot sight, but no scope. I decided to go with this because I couldn’t settle on a scope and this setup allows me to get used to rotating the gun so I can look down the red dot. If I want to add a scope at a later date, then it should be a relatively seamless transition. Like Mason, I also found the regular foregrips to be awkward when using the canted sight, so the BT E2 was the only option.”

“Moving on, I’ve got the WA-26. I didn’t like the feel of the WA-22 at all, and while the WA-26B did feel pretty good, the WA-26 just felt a tiny bit better. For the pistol grip, I went with the BT-102, for the same reason as Mason. The others just felt way too small and awkward.”

“Where Mason and I differ is with the handguard. I went with the WA HEX Z6 instead of the WA HEX 1-3. It is a bit heavier and doesn’t offer as much airflow, but does offer more customization further down the road, if I end up using this design going forward. Aside from that, I also went with the eighteen inch barrel. I didn’t have the wiggle room to put on the twenty inch or twenty-two inch barrels even if I wanted to, but I liked the eighteen inch barrel better anyways. Though my pulse rifle will be less accurate at long range, the shorter barrel will offer me more maneuverability when working with tight spaces, like inside of a ship or a building.”

“Good reasoning. And the characteristics?”

“Thirty-point-three inches long, weighing five-point-two-six pounds.”

Ben ended up going next, followed by Sonja and ending with her sister. Ben’s pulse rifle looked similar to ours, though he elected to go with the two times scope I did when I did my first build. He didn’t have a canted sight or a canted grip, so it looked like he was going to stick with the single sight. The only big difference was that he went with the twenty-inch barrel rather than the eighteen inch like Mason and I had.

When we got to the girls, we found two pulse rifles that looked quite a bit different from Ben’s, Masons or my own. Both of them went with the twenty-two inch barrels, looking like they wanted to set up for long-range engagement, rather than mid-to-long range. That was emphasized by the fact that both had scopes on their rifles. They did use a different mount than Mason did, selecting one that actually had an additional mount on top. So when looking down the scope all they would need to do is raise their eye slightly and they would be looking through the red dot.

They also went with different scopes entirely. Anja went with the WA Drenian 07 like Mason did, but Sonja went with the WA Straross 01. The latter of the two was a variable four times to twelve times zoom, so it was built with much further ranges in mind. They could still use their guns in close range, but they wouldn’t need to rotate the entire gun to do so.

To fit the twenty-two inch barrel they did have to use the WA-22, but they actually preferred it over any of the other options. They were also smaller than the rest of us, with shorter arms, so it probably just fit them better. In terms of length and weight, the girls were very close to both limits. The length on both was thirty-five-point-eight inches, while the weight was five-point-seven-eight for Anja and five-point-nine-one for her sister.

“Good stuff. I like this exercise because it gives me a good idea of what each of you wants in a gun. With the limits in place, you need to get more creative and build a gun so it fits you,” he said, before pointing to the girls. “For example, the guns the two of you built are focused on taking targets out from a distance. I know Mason also has the WA Drenian 07, but his build uses the eighteen inch barrel which is better for close to mid range, while both of your builds are using the twenty-two inch barrels for greater accuracy. Sonja took that a little bit further by using the WA Straross 01, which is purely a long-range scope. It was a good idea to go with the WA 30mm B over the WA 30mm A, because that gives you a close range sight as well, without having to go the canted route.

“Mason and Jonathan, on the other hand, built theirs for close-to-mid range. The WA Drenian 07 would allow Mason to engage targets at long range in a pinch, and Jonathan has kept his options open by not picking out a scope, just yet. It is also very true that the shorter overall length is much better for dealing with close quarters because they won’t have to move their guns as much when moving through doorways or turning.”

“Ben is somewhere in the middle. His is built for close-to-mid range as well, though he’ll just be a little bit better at firing down range and a little bit worse in close quarters. The BT Omite 22 two times scope is a solid scope though, and with practice will allow him to take medium to long range shots with decent accuracy.”

“Alright, now that we’re done with show and tell, we’ll get right into the testing. We’ll be starting with the stock pulse rifle and will go with the same order, so Mason, Jonathan, Ben, Sonja and Anja last.”

We all moved over to the table which now had a stock pulse rifle laid out on it. Sitting next to it was a barrel cleaning tool, as well as the practice power cell he would need for his run through. Sitting down, Mason lay both hands down on the table, palms down, and then waited for the whistle to sound. As soon as it did, he got to work.

The pulse rifle didn’t take any tools whatsoever to disassemble, making it take no time at all to take it apart, examine everything to make sure there are no faults, clean the barrel and then put it all back together. He started by rotating the handgrip counter-clockwise so he would be able to get at the barrel. Setting it off to the side, he immediately began unscrewing the barrel. Once it was out, he looked it over to make sure it wasn’t warped, and then ran the barrel cleaning tool through it. That only took a few seconds and then he finished up the rest.

Pulse rifles were rather simple weapons, not having any moving parts in the slightest, so he just made sure that the pistol grip and buttstock were tight and wouldn’t come loose. Not finding any issues, he screwed in the barrel, attached the handgrip and then slapped the button on the table, which would give the exact amount of time he took to disassemble it, clean it, and then put it back together. Standing up, he grabbed the practice power cell and loaded it into the gun as he ran. The rest of us turned our attention to the screens, following his progress as he made his way through.

The course was pretty extensive for how little room it took up, initially making me believe some enchanting shenanigans were going on, but it was just incredibly well designed. There were two main things that went into determining your score; your time and your accuracy. That wasn’t the only thing though. There were always fifty targets that appeared as you made through, though they changed every time. The bullseye on each target also changed from run to run, so no run was ever the same.

Along with regular bad guys, there were also bad guys using civilians as hostages that popped up, as well as regular civilians. If you hit a civilian one point would be deducted, and if you killed one then three points would be deducted. If you ignored a civilian, or killed the bad guy holding one hostage, then three points would be added. When killing a bad guy three points would be added for hitting the bullseye, while only one point would be added if you hit them elsewhere. If you missed a bad guy entirely, then you would lose three points.

With the system in place, you could get a maximum of one hundred fifty points and a minimum of negative one hundred fifty points. The score you got would add or subtract a maximum of twenty points from your total score. So if you finished with a rating of one hundred thirty-five out of one hundred fifty, or ninety percent, you would have eighteen points added to your score.

That was the primary reason why Ben, Anja, Sonja and I struggled for the first week. We would either not react fast enough and a bad guy disappeared or we would end up killing a civilian. Once we had done it more and more and got more confident, we slowly started getting higher and higher target scores. Ryx definitely put more emphasis on accuracy and time, as we weren’t training to be police officers or soldiers. It was more about self defense and preparing us for higher level dungeons, where anything we saw would be firing right back of us. Except for other adventurers, but it was incredibly easy to differentiate between them and a monster.

Mason seemed to really be feeling it today, knocking down targets left right and center while moving quickly. There were a few shots that weren’t quite as accurate as he would’ve liked, as well as a few misses, but he was doing very, very well. That was evidenced by the score screen that updated as soon as he exited the course.

“Fuck yeah!” he said upon seeing his score.

His time read two minutes and twenty-nine-point-eight-eight seconds, and his accuracy read ninety-four-point-four percent. That was good enough for a score of ninety-one. He would have scored higher, but he had a score of one hundred twenty-nine out of one hundred fifty for the target portion of the score, adding only seventeen-point-two points, out of a possible twenty.

To get a perfect score of one hundred, you had to have a time at or under two minutes and fifteen seconds, an accuracy of one hundred percent, and a target score of one hundred fifty. You could get a score over one hundred, based off of your speed, but that was rather difficult to do. Ryx and a few of the other instructors had achieved scores of about one hundred and five when demonstrating the course, but it would take my friends and I a long time to get that good. You needed to be very quick, have very good decision making, and have no small shortage of luck to get a score that high.

“That’s what I want to see!” Ryx said, giving Mason a high five. “Keep that up and you’ll get a score of one hundred in no time. For pulse rifles, at least.”

“You mean we’ll have to go through a similar course with different types of weapons?” Anja asked.

“Of course! We’ll be doing it in a rather weird order, but we’ll be switching to pistols once I’ve determined that the five of you have stagnated with the pulse rifles. Or you all reach a score of one hundred, whichever comes first. We’ve got seven more weapons systems to go through, and they’re not all like the pulse rifle. We’ll be dealing with plasma weapons, railguns and lasers in the future. Just something to look forward to. Ready, Jonathan?”

I nodded, sitting down as the pulse rifle was placed before me. The practice power cell was replaced by a new one, and the disassembly and reassembly timer was reset. When I was ready, I placed my hands down on the table and waited.

As soon as the whistle was blown, I raised my hands off the table slightly and the pulse rifle flew into them. In one motion, I twisted the handgrip off and set it off to the side. As my hand moved back over to the gun, the barrel was already unscrewing, almost as if it was moving on its own. It wasn’t actually moving on it’s own though. Barrels don’t do that.

I had a breakthrough in my telekinesis while eating dinner a few days beforehand. While reaching for the pepper on the table, which was slightly out of my reach, it actually slid a few inches and into my hand. I hadn’t even noticed it, but my friends certainly had. It was Anja who drew my attention to it. I thought she was kidding at first, but she had me place it back before trying to move it again.

It turned out that telekinesis inside of Battlestate and in the real world worked differently, or Straesse minds and Scyftan minds are just wired differently. When practicing with Kiri, I had been trying to stop the orbs from moving, or deflect them so they couldn’t hit me, as I would inside of the game. When I tried to draw something towards me in real life, that’s when it fell under my control and I could move it with ease. Well, up to a point.

Initially, I could barely lift the weight of the pepper shaker, let alone the weight of a pulse rifle. Over the past two days, I had practiced with the orbs Kiri gave me, pushing myself to level it up. I had met up with her to let her know that I had succeeded, and she congratulated me while also warning me to stop immediately if I had any nosebleeds, wait a few hours, and then continue.

I had followed those directions and quickly worked my way up until I could lift seven pounds, which was on the upper end of the orbs that Kiri gave me. The orbs were much heavier than I was expecting them to be, but that was because they were made out of such a dense material. The baseball-sized orb was about ten pounds, while the fifteenth orb was seven and a half pounds. That was the one that I was working with at the moment. While the initial increase in my abilities was quite fast, Kiri said that it would begin to slow down once I got past the twentieth orb. That’s why there were only twenty in the case.

Once the barrel was unscrewed, I lifted it into my hands and quickly looked it over, making sure that there were no cracks or deformities while Mason was using it. Satisfied that it was in perfect condition, I reached over for the cleaning tool, the handle of which flew into my hand, and proceeded to clean it out. Quite a bit of black soot-like dust had fallen out of the barrel as I worked, which was normal when dealing with energy weapons. The pulses of energy are so hot that they gradually eat away at the inner coating, similar to the way barbecues heat plates fall apart from repeatedly heating up and cooling down.

The second it was clear, I used my hand to get it started in the threads before using my telekinesis to finish the job. I hadn’t got precise enough to do that with telekinesis alone, but it would eventually get to the point where that wouldn’t be a problem. By the time the barrel was as tight as I could get it, I had finished examining the buttstock and the pistol grip, making sure they were nice and tight.

All that was left to do was put on the handgrip, which only took a second, before I hit the button to lock in my disassembly and reassembly time. Getting up, I began running over to course while the practice power cell floated beside me. Grabbing onto it, I slammed it in before getting started.

It wasn’t the best run I had ever done, but it was certainly up there. It was also pretty good for a warm up round. My speed increased by almost exactly two seconds, while my accuracy dipped by zero-point-two-six percent. My build time was now over five seconds faster than Mason’s, which meant that my course time was a lot slower than his was.

“Nicely done,” Ryx said. “You’re better than you were yesterday with your telekinesis, which is helping you with the first part of the run, and your overall time, but it’s not helping your course time at all. That run was almost identical to your average run yesterday, though your accuracy did increase by a tiny bit. For your next stock run, try to go a little bit faster and see how you do.”

Nodding, I moved over to stand next to my friends, and Ben took my spot.

We each did our six runs, and, surprising no one, did much better with our customized pulse rifles than we did with the stock version. The timed score was adjusted because our weapons had more parts than the stock version, but the combination of modifying our weapons, and not having to use the iron sights meant that we performed quite a bit better.

Everyone’s time was a little bit slower on the first attempt, but as we got used to our new weapons, we got quite a bit faster. Fast enough that if you separated the disassembly and reassembly times, each of us was, on average, about seven and a half seconds faster. All of us were slightly more accurate as well. Mason had walked us through aligning our sights the night before, so they were bang on when we began shooting.

The person with the biggest increase in time and accuracy was actually Ben. He did have a slight increase in time and accuracy with the stock version, but it was night and day when he used his own modified version. Even with the two times scope, he had an easier time tracking targets and landing his shots, allowing him to move quicker as a result.