Interlude: Training as Usual

Some people were very unlucky, and this little girl was surely one of those.

She had a tailored body, the right bloodline, and the best possible in the realm of equipment, but was still unable to display any heroic skill. Be it their superhuman physical prowess, abnormal sensory awareness, or energy bending, she lacked it all.

Even after the monastery was forced to raise the intensity of all training and use more 'rough' methods of 'awakening', nothing happened. At least nothing that most of the researchers cared to notice and/or report.

“I’ll tell ya that all those dumbasses’re stupid, lass. They wouldn’t be able to see perfection even if it slapped their mothers' asses, ay?” The unorthodox nun blabbered to her silent protegee as they both took their seats in the antechamber of the training field. “If they had a li’l bit of notion, then we’d still be able to use an air conditioner, y’know?”

With her complaints out of the way, Julianna took off the headpieces of her habit, showing her silver hair, and opened up parts of the tunic. She would always say that these clothes were too stuffy, so it was possible that the lack of climate control was too much for her.

The miniature nun didn’t care about it at all, though. Staying cool in situations where she wasn’t under direct influence from something was easy. She only had to focus a little and her body would stay at the right temperature no matter what.

Even if it was hardly useful below the sun or inside a frozen space, it was still something everyone should be doing instead of complaining.

But again, it wasn’t as if she would say this. There was no reason to, and it wasn’t as if she could say anything too.

“Oho? Are you thinkin’ that I’m dumb fer not ‘decidin’ to cool down’, ain’t ya?” The silver-haired nun asked in a mocking tone, prompting the child to retract warily. “It’s in yer face, lass. I’ve been ‘round long enough to see it. No point hidin’ fer me.”

Julianna smiled under the little girl’s gaze, almost starting to laugh at how wary she was. But changed stances soon enough, turning her expression into a more serious one.

“Anyway, ya’ve mah’ summary? It’d be easier if you could talk, but I’m yet to manage this skill fer ya… The top brass don't wanna risk givin' ya too much.”

The little girl removed a small bag from beneath her habit and then took a bunch of folded sheets of parchment from it, giving those to Julianna. The researcher nun then nodded and started to read what was written there, speeding through the many pages in a few seconds.

“There was no need fer the historical bits, y’know? All this ‘bout the devils creatin’ demons to enslave humans, angels comin’ to fight’em, and the struggle to destroy the fake god. None of it matters anymore.” She crumpled a couple of pages and threw them away as she was speaking. “Both angels and devils are no more, so who cares what happened back then? The only bit that catches mah’ fancy’s the fake god ones. These’re interestin’, ay?”

The nun smirked again and gave a long stare to the owner of the papers, going back to being serious a moment later.

“All else’s good still. I’ve no idea how yer able to get these things, but all I know say that's all right... How yer able to get the formula by readin' what the spell should do's beyond me, but that's that. I don’t even wanna imagine what you’d be able to do if we had someone to show the real thing.”

After the summary explaining the origins of the information, each sheet of parchment was a perfect reproduction of a magical circle. Each one was made by imprinting spiritual energy like if enchanting an object and all were based on descriptions alone. The only non-abstract information given was a rune glossary, but the little kid threw this one away after a single glance.

For Julianna, this skill was much better than anything a hero had. The capability of, only by hearing the goal and theory, creating a spell had way too many uses. Way more than something basic like being a really good fighter at least. And that was without even considering this girl’s special characteristics and compatibility.

With the proper training and equipment, and maybe an evil eye, it was sure that this girl would be able to do anything. And if she could make others like her, then even the concept of a hero would be outdated.

But first, she had to reach the right spot to present her thesis, and she had to do so before her time limit, which meant that it was time for some more training.

“Ya’ve the theory already, so where’s yer bullets?” Julianna asked, watching the girl move to remove the revolver that was bigger than her hand from beneath her habit and then unload it. It was weird how she was so good at handling that thing, but seeing her unload a gun in a couple of seconds wasn't impressive anymore.

The unloaded bullets were even more impressive anyway.

Each one of them was a custom-made spell bullet that, in all honesty, should be impossible to be used. Julianna packed them way too densely while also making the material way too brittle, so any mess up in the process would destroy the bullet. And still, there they were, all enchanted with a different set of rules and ready to fire.

The only problem was having enough energy to use them, but this problem could be solved with chemistry.

“Load’em back and less’ move, ay? Time to some target practice.” She told the small nun, once again stopping to watch as she reloaded the weapon at lightning speed.

Then, after being sure the little girl was ready, the silver-haired woman took a small bottle of transparent liquid from between her chest.

“This one’s a hyper-concentrated elixir, y’see? Other li’l thing that’d get me a one-time ticket to the firepit, but I’ll keep makin’ it fer ya. Don’t tell anyone, ay?”

Making elixir was a troublesome process with as troublesome ingredients, but Julianna was going one step above. And she was handing the fruits of the process that could level a city to a girl with no more than twelve years. It was the kind of thing that no sane person would do and almost no maniac would try.

But again, Julianna was usually in the ‘almost no one’ category no matter what she did.

She also liked the concentrated formula better due to the fact that most instantaneous side effects became weaker with it at the cost of all others getting worse. It meant that they could train better and worry about recovering at another time.

It also removed the need for syringes for it to work, so it was faster to use too.

And so, without asking a thing, the little nun gulped down the contents of the bottle given to her, gripped her gun, and moved to the door.

“Good luck out there, lass.”

She then nodded to her caretaker and opened the passage to the training field. In her sights, a massive pit with a single fifteen centimeters long steel beam across it. A very thin and long bridge meant to be the only foothold during the whole target practice.

The whole idea of her training was to cross this one bridge while dodging any attacks and hunting the targets that would appear. Eight of them to be specific and without any ammo other than her six homemade spell bullets. And all that, of course, with a time limit.

A very well-thought training course with only a 45% death rate and a growth rate of around 120%. Much better than the dumb-made battle course for saints that had an almost 70% death rate due to them setting it in the middle of the sea.

Julianna was very proud of her creation, both of them, which was even truer when, for the umpteenth time, she marked a successful completion on the subject’s report.

It was only another uneventful training day.