Chapter 126: Entrance Club Tests (3)

Hearing Revan’s words, Shani tilted her head, confused.

"I don’t know what kind of gun Instructor Theron gave you, but with a standard essence pistol, the technique is to aim at the bullseye and channel your essence while keeping your posture steady so the gun doesn’t wobble when firing."

With a frustrated look, Shani said, "Luca told me the exact same thing. I was trying so hard to control—"

She cut herself off as realization struck her. One crucial detail neither Luca nor Revan had mentioned was essence control.

They were entirely focused on maintaining a steady posture to avoid missing, whereas Shani’s biggest challenge had been manually modulating her essence, calibrating the exact output and shot intensity needed to hit the mark.

Without finishing her sentence, Shani picked up the handgun Revan was about to put back into its case.

She took her stance... Bang!

Shani blinked in surprise, not out of cluelessness this time, but because her theory had been proven right. She drew a deep breath, and instantly, an aura of confidence radiated from her.

A freshman who saw that Shani’s third shot scored only a seven scoffed. "Look at her acting all high and mighty."

Bang!

The fourth shot landed an eight-point score. The freshmen dismissed it as a mere lucky shot.

Meanwhile, Revan and the upperclassmen beamed. They seemed to realize that Shani had pinpointed her mistake.

Sure enough— Bang!

"A ten!" squeaked the very freshman who had been the most eager to belittle her.

Her fifth and final shot of the precision round scored a perfect ten.

Luca, who had somehow joined Sonny at some point, cheered enthusiastically for Shani alongside the rest of her friends.

Shani lowered her arm and relaxed her shoulders before the second round.

She finally understood the fundamental difference between standard handguns and the custom pistol Elias had given her.

Elias’s pistol required the shooter to actively compress and form their own essence projectiles during training.

A standard essence pistol, on the other hand, was engineered specifically for individuals with poor essence control.

The user simply had to channel raw essence into their hand. The gun itself captured that raw energy and converted it into a shot. No fine essence comtrol was required.

For most beastmen, a standard essence handgun offered consistent firepower with minimal effort because its output was fixed.

However, for a beastman adept at fine essence control and capable of boosting their shot output, a standard pistol only acted as a hindrance.

Inwardly, Shani wanted to curse Elias for handing her that specialized pistol without explaining a single thing.

Yet she could already picture Elias throwing it back in her face, telling her that for the trial, nobody had told her to train with that specific weapon. He had only told her to study its internal components.

Before Shani began her second round, the student firing beside her finished up. His total score was 84, 44 points from the first round with a single 10-point shot, and 40 points in the second round without hitting any 10s.

It made it abundantly clear that Luca and Hazel’s skills were far above average.

"Wait, Shani’s first round score was only 35 points, right? That means she needs to hit at least 45 points in her second round just to pass!" a student whispered.

"Forty-five points? Higher than Hazel? No way!"

"Rapid fire is way harder. Even Hazel didn’t land a single ten-point shot."

"Remember, Shani’s guaranteed to pass anyway. Her score doesn’t mean a thing," another student sneered.

The surrounding freshmen nodded along, sneering in agreement.

Shani paid their chatter no mind. She raised her weapon.

"Begin!" Jace shouted.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Five rapid shots struck the target. A hovering camera immediately zoomed in to display the results.

"Nine! Nine! Nine! Ten! Ten! Forty-seven points!" Jace announced, his booming voice drowning out the previous sneers of the freshmen.

After a moment of stunned silence, a thunderous cheer erupted from Shani’s friends, followed by applause from the upperclassmen.

One by one, the first-years reluctantly joined in the applause.

"Looks like we already know who scored the highest in rapid fire," Revan remarked, gesturing toward Shani with his finger.

He then turned to the rest of the applicants. "Shani Rowan, total score 82 points... Pass!"

Although an 82-point total was relatively low for someone with Shani’s status as a Direct Student candidate, no one scoffed anymore.

They finally realized that during those first few shots, Shani had simply encountered technical difficulties. Once those technical issues were sorted out, her true ability came shining through.

Had those technical hiccups not occurred, Shani likely would have walked away with the highest overall score.

Feeling thoroughly ashamed, the freshmen stood in sullen silence, looking like punished schoolchildren.

Shani ignored them completely, walking straight over to her friends and accepting their enthusiastic hugs.

She stayed to watch the remaining applicants complete their trials alongside her group.

Every single candidate passed, but no one managed to beat Luca’s overall score, and no one surpassed Shani’s rapid-fire score.

"You’ve all been added to the club group chat. Information regarding practice schedules and other details will be posted there," Revan announced before wrapping up the day’s trials.

Shani and her friends headed to the cafeteria for an early lunch, as Kiran and Sonny had their own trials scheduled right after lunch and wanted to arrive ahead of time.

"Luca was amazing during the trial. He ranked second on the written exam, too," Shani noted, glancing at Sonny since he was Luca’s friend.

"Luca’s been training in shoot since he was little, with training that’s way more intense than anything the rest of us went through. His dad is a professional shooter. And his mom, with his dad’s help, runs Adams Shooting Grounds."

"Woah," Shani gasped, genuinely impressed.

Shani didn’t even need to ask what Adams Shooting Grounds was, the name alone was enough to tell her it was a massive commercial enterprise.

Once again, the Grand Academy proved to Shani that it was truly a gathering place for extraordinary individuals.

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