It was the next day after my encounter with Jacob Foyer and Naomi Matsumoto. During that day, after Naomi left, I went over to my instructor, Jayde, and informed him about my Agoge Duel with Jacob.

He was surprised at first, but he nonetheless acknowledged the duel and made preparations for it. Thanks to that, I had one month until that day. This duel will be after a couple of arcs, so once all that is over, I’ll be able to focus on that and end things with Jacob once and for all.

But, right now, I needed to focus on one thing. And that was the second arc. Unlike the Group Training Session, this story arc wasn’t going to take place at Agoge Academy. It will take place outside of it.

The event will happen in a mall in a fragmented part of Great Britain in a few days from now. The people involved in this event will be Mr. Protagonist, because obviously, Beiste, Min, and also Jeanne.

During this arc, the people that put the Manticore in the Agoge Forest will make an appearance there and cause some chaos. Obviously, Luke and the others will do their best to stop it, to which the culprits behind the Manticore incident will reveal themselves, marking the start of Luke’s journey to taking them down.

Since I have a couple of days before that arc happens, I’m going to train my [Arsenal] Talent as much as possible. Thanks to achieving a Rank-Up, I’m able to do more with it than before, so I'll at least be a little prepared in terms of combat.

I say that but considering how the first arc happened with the Manticore, I can’t keep my guard down. Which is why I thought of a plan to deal with the people there.

While thinking about this, I soon made it to the Training Hall. However, I planned on going to a different part of it.

You see, the Training Hall itself is a massive gymnasium-like room used for group sparring and solo training. But, there are certain sections around this place that are used for specific training purposes.

And one of them was…the Shooting Range.

So, unlike most Saviors that use either blunt and sharp weapons like hammers or swords, there are a few people that use ranged weapons like bows…and guns. And to avoid students getting caught in the crossfire of the shots, the Shooting Range was created.

Walking over to a door on the far end of the wall in the Training Hall, I opened it to reveal a long passageway with shooting range boxes where students would go and shoot their targets.

While walking inside, I admired the sci-fi look of it from the white walls with certain engraving line marks on it along with the LED lights that keep the place lit. The place looked a bit empty, but I was soon wrong when I heard a shot rang throughout the room, almost making me deaf.

To protect my ears, I quickly found some noise-dampener earmuffs to put on. I then walked over to the person currently shooting their target. And I was grateful that it was someone I knew…especially since I was hoping to meet her here on purpose.

Standing in one of the firing lanes was a girl with short blond hair and wielding two revolvers as she shot down her targets easily in rapid succession. Quickly, noticing my presence, the person turned to face me, her lightning-blue eyes staring directly at me.

“Oh, hey, Ethan,” Tyra greeted me with a surprised expression. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Hey, Tyra,” I waved as I greeted her back.

There are two main characters from the Novel during the Academy Saga that frequently use the Shooting Range. Those would be the two gun users, Thea Lochmann and Tyra Thorgard.

And luckily, I managed to run into one of them while coming here. Just like I planned.

“So, I’m assuming you’re here to use the range?” Tyra concluded.

“Pretty much,” I nod my head.

While saying this, I walked over to one of the lanes next to Tyra so I could start my target practice. As I did, Tyra spoke up again.

“I know you have the [Arsenal] Talent, but I didn’t think you would use this place to train with it.”

“Well, I can do this with my [Arsenal] Talent,” I said while making a finger gun gesture as I pointed ahead of me.

A holographic image of a target appeared before me, and just then, I used my signature move and fired a magic bullet at the target. As I did, a loud bang can be heard as I destroyed the target with ease, practically obliterating it.

After destroying the target and getting some points from it, I looked back at Tyra with a smug look on my face. All Tyra could do was scoff.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot you used that technique during the Group Training Session. I wondered about this before, but I thought you could only summon swords.”

“Yeah, well, there was more to it than that.”

Thanks to Beiste, I was reminded that [Arsenal] doesn't just let me summon swords but other weapons. Thanks to that, I've been experimenting with other weapon forms and trying to train with those.

But enough of that. It was time to do what I came here to do.

“Hey, Tyra,” I called out to her. “How about a little match?”

“Oh?” Tyra looked interested as soon as I said this, a slight smile appearing on her face. “What kind of match?”

“Just a friendly one of who can get the most points shooting the targets,” I said with a smile.

“What’s the catch?”

Although she was asking what the price was, I knew she was interested. Both she and Thea love matches when it comes to shooting. In fact, both characters have been known to challenge one another in these matches to see which person was the better marksman. And now I can use that to my advantage.

“The catch is basically a penalty. A small penalty, really. If one of us loses, the winner will be able to get a favor from the loser.”

“A favor?” Tyra raised an eyebrow. “Of what kind?”

“Nothing serious. It could be either buying them something or just asking for a training partner. Nothing too serious or extreme.”

“…Hmm.”

What I was planning here was simple. If I managed to win the match against Tyra, I’d be able to gain favor with her. I missed my chance with Naomi, but that moment gave me this idea. So I plan to make it work. And what I plan to do with that favor is basically try to get closer to her. I’ll probably use the favor and ask her to be my sparring partner or something.

That way, I can not only get both of us stronger by training, but I’ll also be able to gain her trust and become her ally. Hopefully, she’ll agree and we can get this started. Tyra pondered for a little while before nodding her head and looking at me with a daring smile.

“Alright, I accept. Let’s do this!” She looked excited as she accepted my little challenge.

Nice! I managed to get her to accept my challenge.

Now…it was time to get started.

Soon, the two of us got into our shooting lanes and then started the match. Time to have Miss Thorgard owe me a favor!

________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, I'm going to be changing up the posting schedule to instead of everyday, it'll be Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The reason why is because I'm doing some other projects and I don't want to fall behind on this story so I'm giving myself some time to work on those while keeping my chapters in Surviving The Novel from diminishing and making me unable to post any chapters for you guys. I'm telling you this so you guys don't panic about getting a new chapter tomorrow. 

So, yeah, that's what's going to happen now. So, see you guys this Friday.

Also, please support me on my Patreon so you can get fifteen extra chapters for $5 a month. I only need seventeen more followers in order to work on character sheets for the Surviving The Novel characters, so if you want to see those, please do considering following me. 

That's all. See you guys later!