Moving on

The next few days were quiet, the usual happy energy of the school hidden under a wave of tension and worry. It was impossible to hide what'd happened after over 200 students had been involved with the Boss fight. Uncle Max had sent out a notice to all the students asking them not to spread the word outside of the school, and backed it up with some serious compulsion that kept even the chattiest of students from telling anyone outside the school.

However, inside the school it wasn't long until word got out about three freshman who'd managed to kill a Rank 7, Level 4 Body Refining Night Rush Panther, alerting the school who sent Mr. Carter out to investigate. This ended up saving the lives of several hundred people. Someone found footage of John and Steven rushing through the barrier carrying Mike and now everyone knew who they were.

The deluge of people coming to thank them made John feel bad, they hadn't done anything but survive an attack that should've killed them. Hell, even now he could barely believe they'd managed to survive. Killing a higher-level and ranked monster wasn't unheard of, but usually Hunter's had to prepare for days and weeks ahead of time. They studied the monsters every habit, weakness, and strength before laying the perfect ambush. Even then, it was still incredibly dangerous unless you were insanely powerful in your own right. In their own case, if John hadn't of stayed up memorizing the 11th Volume of the Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters the night before they would've died.

After the attack, John had decided to add a class to his schedule and after learning about his plans Mike and Steven agreed which is why they were sitting in the registration office waiting for their turn. It seemed that several thousand students, especially those in the Maker's Club, had decided to add classes to their schedules when the office reopened on Monday morning. With word of an impending Monster Wave those who had decided to put off or ignore combat training had changed their minds.

"Next!" A bored voice rang out, and John was amazed at his luck as he ran into Mr. Carter again.

"Why do I keep running into you here?" John asked as he sat down.

"Because I'm an adviser and I work here... Good job by the way." Mr. Carter said as he looked up from his computer.

"Thanks, I'm amazed I survived." John said.

"Me too, I'm guessing that's why you're here."

"Yeah, I want to add a class. Is there a class that teaching movement techniques?" John asked.

"Yep, already set up from 1600-1800." Mr. Carter said as he printed off the sheet of paper. "Be careful, you're technically overloaded. If you feel it's too much, come back and drop something. Thankfully you have a ton of credits coming your way after last weekend or I would've refused to add this to your load."

"Thanks Mr. Carter." John said with a smile as he stood up to leave.

Noticing that Mike and Steven had already been called up, John decided to wait for them to get done before heading out.

"John!" Kara called out as she finished meeting with an adviser and ran over to give him a hug. "I'm so happy you made it out safely."

A bit surprised, John stiffened for a moment before hugging her back thinking, 'Damn, I feel a lot more curves than I thought she had...'

Taking a step back after the hug, she looked John over before nodding. "Good, you're whole."

John laughed a bit, "What'd you expect?"

"Cuts, bruises, a missing limb?" Kara said with a smile, "After I saw the picture of you covered in blood carrying Mike through the barrier I just had to find you guys but they locked down the dorms and they said you'd decided to stay in building three so you could cultivate."

"I'm all good." John said, smiling back.

"Kara!" A voice called, and she turned to see her friends were ready to leave.

Giving John another quick hug she said, "I'll see you in class!" Leaving John standing there with a dopey grin on his face wondering when he'd changed from the weird loner kid obsessed with becoming a Tamer to someone a hot girl ran up to hug.

Mike slapped John on the back, making him jump as Mike laughed and said, "I'd know that grin anywhere. Kara and John, sitting in a tree."

Steven laughed as he joined in with Mike, "K I S S I N G."

"Shut it!" John laughed with them, "You get signed up?"

"There was some hemming and hawing because of our course load but they gave in." Mike said.

"Good, I'm headed to the shooting range. I'm going to pass that basic training so I can buy my own Spirit Guns!" John said.

"Same." Steven said, "I really need a for real fighting technique, just swinging my fists and making them heavier isn't cutting it any longer."

"I'm off to the Maker's Club, I convinced one of the upperclassman there to help teach me Gunsmithing." Steven said.

Leaving his friends behind, John quickly made his way to the shooting range and paid the 10 credits it took to enter and train outside of class time. This was the school's way of ensuring a student didn't focus on a single subject too much. By forcing them to pay valuable credits they were forced to wait until class time.

Normally, John would've hoarded his credits as he was saving up for those pistols, not to mention that he needed to buy gear and special foods to help Snakey level up. He'd been so focused on rank that he'd completely forgotten how important levels are for monsters too.

However, given what'd just happened John refused to be in a situation where he was completely ineffective in a fight, having to rely on others. There was a reason that despite being weaker physically than Steven, John had chosen to carry Mike. Sure, he'd contributed with his knowledge but he hadn't been able to do any damage to that monster at all.

What he didn't realize was that both Steven and Mike thought exactly the same things. Remembering how calm and focused John had been while he lead them out of that shitty situation, they resolved themselves to get stronger and stronger.

Taking a deep breath, John pulled out the dual pistols from the weapons container in the side wall and loaded them before saying, "Activate basic training scenario." Over the last couple of days, John's soul had finally stabilized and he was beginning to truly understand why Soul Cultivator's were so amazing at learning. Even though he was only at the first level of Body Refining, he felt his body responding and learning at an incredible pace as he flipped off the safeties and opened fire.

Down range, the silhouette of a monkey fell out of a tree. *BANG* He fired both guns at the same time, to the right 50 meters down range a mouse keeled over while to middle of the range 100 meters away and 15 meters up, a bird fell out of the sky. *BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG* John fell into a zone that he'd never felt before as he fired clip after clip, not even realizing just how many credits or how much time he was spending at the range until he heard a beeping sound and the AI's voice spoke.

"Beginner Dual Pistols Qualification Achieved."

Broken out of his zone, John put the safeties back on the pistols and unloaded them before placing them on a cleaning bench and realizing that his hands were shaking uncontrollably after firing thousands of rounds. "Computer, what's the time?"

"The time is 0100, the range will enter free time in 1 hour." The monotone voice replied.

"Fuck, how long have I been here?"

"User entered firing range at 1700 hours, you have been here for just over 8 hours."

"How much did I spend?" John asked, starting to worry.

"Nothing, user has been granted unlimited access to training facilities as a reward for service to the school. If not, user would have spent 14,280 credits for combined range time and ammunition costs."

"Holy Shit, thank god!" John said, suddenly afraid of ever entering a state like that again. "Computer, end training and return me to the surface."

"Understood."

The guns sitting on the cleaning bench were lifted from their spot and cleaned by invisible hands as the booth rose from the basement and John staggered his way to the dorms, collapsing in bed without changing.