With the morning came the new day, one that Ben decided wouldn’t be spent on things outside of his control, instead devoting it to chores he knew he needed to get out of the way for the upcoming wave.

Really, there was a pile of them, but he let Thera talk him into one in particular before moving on to the rest. Practicing.

Ben was going to be going between various invasion points with her and he didn’t intend to just be a tag-along, that meant he needed to be prepared to fight to whatever extent he could in the ways that suited him most, but the few ways he could weren’t something he devoted much time to when his hours were much better spent on acts of creation.

Being on the front lines though, that needed to change so he resolved himself to use at least a bit of the time left they had on practicing the more combative applications of his skills, leading himself and Thera to heading out to the town’s public training grounds.

As she pulled out and shaped multiple lumps of dirt from the ground below, practicing her multitasking by carrying them through the air with her power, Ben was treating them as targets, using both one of his guns as well as his magic to try and hit them while she did all she could to avoid his shots, leaving the sky above a mess of movements and collisions as they both put to use some of the finer bits of their skills.

And as time went on, both largely ended up treating it like a game as much as they were viewing it as a chance to improve their skills, with Ben in particular reminded about the carnivals of Earth he’d enjoyed as he took his shots, watching many of them hit, even if he knew that when it came time he’d be able to do better then he currently was for the difference in what he was shooting at.

Ben’s power was never going to beat out a piece of stone Thera had strengthened, he knew that much for sure, but that wasn’t true of the more fleshy bodies he’d be aiming at in the near future.

Not only would the demons be pouring out in a volume that would make it hard to actually miss, but when shooting at flesh, there was practically no way that his attacks wouldn’t tear through them, able to take out multiple ones at once so long as he paid the slightest bit of attention to where he was making his shots.

Which means I should maybe consider taking high tank instead of what I was originally planning. He mused to himself. I’d definitely be able to get enough experience doing that compared to what I want to go with. But nah, as nice as the bonuses to my defensive skills would be, I have my goals.

Still, it didn’t hurt to consider how he might make the most of his strengths, so for the next attack he materialized a thin film around the bullet he was firing off, barely spending any of his mana compared to the power behind the attack as he watched it hit and judged the viability of doing that in the war.

Let’s see, creating a poisonous layer on the things I shoot out with my magic won’t necessarily be useless, but I’m confident that the first things I hit will be killed easily enough and probably the second too, which just means it would be to damage the third demon my shots either pass through or land in. Except if I’m assuming I’ll be able to successfully shoot through two demons with one bullet first, the effect of passing through their bodies feels like it would have a decent chance of wiping away most of the poison before it can show its effect where it would be most needed. Which means it’s probably a less useful way of spending mana than just saving that bit to shoot more. A shame.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It had felt like a decent idea right until he’d tested it too, leading to just a bit of disappointment before he moved on, accepting the results and thinking on what to try next as he materialized a small cube on a whim and shot it out, observing the effect as it completely missed its target.

Sacrificing power, wind resistance, and accuracy was obviously never going to work. A shame though. I am the apostle of Myriad, mowing down demons with cubic bullets would be a hell of a calling card.

It had just been an idle whim though, one he hadn’t had any real expectations for yet left him with an idea as he materialized a different shape and let it hang in the air as he pointed straight forward, not aiming at any of Thera’s targets as he shot it off but hitting one nonetheless.

<MARKSMANSHIP LEVEL INCREASED>

But even if I can’t make the cube idea work, I can affect the trajectory by altering the initial bullet’s shape. Interesting. Not necessarily useful but I’m not so confident it won’t be that it looks like I’m going to practice that a bit more.

The mana cost was still worse and he could materialize from and shoot from any angle instead of trying to play with how his shots would hit the wind but the fact that the attempt netted him a level showed it had potential, and it wasn’t like he’d lose anything but a bit of time doing that so for the rest of the time he’d devoted to practice that day was spent getting a feel for how different shapes would move through the air, taking that information in on the off chance it might show its use later.

“I hate everything about this.”

“It’s fine Myriad. Chill.”

“I refuse, I hate that you thought of this.”

“It’s a new way to work on my skills while I’m up here and will boost my odds of survival overall, you should be thrilled I had this idea.”

“Until you hit somebody.”

“You’re gods, you’ll be fine.”

Myriad was less sure but didn’t want to immediately refute him for the fear that Ben might want to put the idea to the test when he was already about to make the realm a lot more dangerous given what he intended.

Up until then, Ben had treated his actualization rather casually as he had raised it to mastery. Sure, he’d make buildings and food to practice it and was more than content to use it to lift and move things, letting him read in a fashion nearly similar to how he would back on the world, minus his homunculi, but during his practice with Thera during the day, he’d come to the epiphany that there was no reason he couldn’t use it to keep training two skills in particular with it at night, both his marksmanship and his aim, and with that idea firmly in his head he was eager to put it to the test.

Without wind resistance, there was no way for him to keep up the tests he’d been doing earlier in the day but that didn’t matter to him. He had no issue with working on his ability to shoot in a straight line so he got Myriad to create moving targets for him as he produced small ball bearings, firing them off and watching them strike.

“I’m good for this distance, move them back about twice as far. I need to put some effort in if I want this to get me any levels.”

Still having misgivings, his god did as he was asked, pushing back the target as Ben took his next shots, feeling his aim get worse for the distance as he pushed himself to improve, firing out a barrage of bullets.

I’m mostly hitting but it's definitely harder. Just keep aiming for the center.

The fact that it was a challenge helped make it fun as he kept going, ignoring Myriad’s discomfort while he felt himself slowly growing better with each attempt as he knew that the activity was going to become a main part of his nightly routine for a while to come, at least until he reached the ninth level of his two skills.

It was a feeling Myriad wanted to complain about to no end, only holding back for the fact that Ben was right. This was a simple way for him to get some extra practice in a way that wouldn’t disturb his other activities, leaving the god nothing to do but hope his mad apostle’s curiosity wouldn’t end up with him turning his attacks against him in the end.

<AIM LEVEL INCREASED>