Bang! Bang! Bang!

The revolver boomed. The barrel smoked. Three bullets whizzed through the air.

The doll at the top of one of the buildings saw the bullet coming. It jumped down from the building and started running towards Aren.

The two other bullets also missed the other dolls.

"Shit!"

Aren snapped the revolver to the doll, who was running towards him, and kept pulling the trigger like his life depended on it.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The doll sidestepped one bullet. Weaved past the second. Ducked under the third.

The bullets were too slow for the doll!

"Keep moving, my Lord!"

Melia instructed from the sidelines.

In that moment, the doll grabbed the black revolver from its long barrel. It tried yanking it from Aren's hands.

Aren held on to the revolver like his life depended on it and then pushed his hips against the doll's body to try and wrestle the gun away.

"Kikikiki!"

The doll laughed, its shrill voice echoing through the room, and then it grabbed Aren by his shoulder before throwing him over its head.

With his back touching the ground first, Aren groaned in pain as the doll loomed over him, and he quickly picked up several loose pebbles from the ground.

"Bulletcraft!"

The pebbles turned into bullets. Then, they got pushed inside the chamber of the revolver. The chamber got rolled into place.

Click!

From the down position, Aren aimed the revolver at the doll's face and fired a bullet. The revolver shook.

Bang!

The doll pulled its head back, and the bullet just grazed past its face.

Aren sat up, knelt on the ground, and pushed the revolver towards the doll. The distance between two of them was as short as two meters.

At that moment, two more of those dolls appeared behind him, locked Aren's arms in place, and pushed him down to the ground.

Thud!

"Argh…"

Aren groaned in pain as the dolls pinned him down, making it impossible for him to move.

"Good try, my Lord!"

Melia cheered him on.

However, the rest of the Society of Knowers shook their heads as they realized that while Aren had some skills, he was greatly lacking.

"You need to move more, Lord. Your close-quarter combat skills are lackluster, and you will lose every fight if you let your opponents get close.

"Keep your distance, and be mindful of what shots you take. Your divinity is not endless, and you can't just forever keep crafting more bullets."

Alec said.

"Y-Yeah…"

After the dolls let him go, Aren stood back on his feet and shrugged off the dust from his clothes while thinking about the fight.

He was wondering what else he could do differently, and he could've kept running, but he doubted that he was fast enough to outrun the dolls.

'My physical attributes are shit. My attributes get increased every time I level up, but I can't rely on that.

'What if I meet another level 2 Outlaw now, who has trained all his life? I would get crushed. I guess I need to start doing morning jogs.'

He scratched the back of his head.

"…You could try joining Outlaw guild. They are pretty much frowned upon; I think you can guess why, but you might be able to find someone decent enough to teach you."

Lyrian said from behind the screaming mask.

"I… am not too sure about that, Scream."

Melia said with a troubled look.

Outlaw guilds didn't have the best reputation among Blessed Ones. It was extremely poor. For good reason too, as many of them engaged in illegal activities and were not trustworthy.

"Hmm…"

Aren scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Lonesome Outlaws, who were rejected from other guilds, decided to band together to form their own guilds to be with people like them—outcasts.

"Because being part of Outlaw pathway means that you will receive a certain kind of discrimination."

Alec said.

"…I can check that out. Thank you."

Aren said with a nod.

With that, the meeting pretty much came to an end, but they stayed about for a few more minutes to chat informally.

After that, they headed back to the graveyard and left the Realm Between through the stone gateway.

…

Monday noon, Kornacis, Money District, at the front of the Steel Bank.

"Whew…"

Aren smoked a cigarette, let out a long drag, and after the cigarette turned so small that it almost burned his fingertips, he flicked it to the ground and crushed it beneath his boot.

He just finished taking a trip over to the Steel Bank to deposit some of his money, and he told the people of the bank that he received the money through a mission.

Of course, he couldn't just deposit all of his wealth. It was too much to receive from a single mission.

He couldn't just keep storing his money over in Agnes's house and needed a proper place, such as the Steel Bank.

It was a long, paperwork-filled meeting with the bank's representatives, but in the end, he was now in possession of his very own safety deposit box.

After a few more missions, he could deposit the rest of his money.

"Whoo…"

After letting out the final smoke from the cigarette, Aren looked to the distance and saw the roof of the cathedral towering over the cityscape.

'Cathedral, huh. I guess I could go have a chat with the goddess, since it has been a while since I have done that.'

With cane in hand, he tapped it against the cobblestone streets and made his way to the cathedral.

While en route, he came across children carrying bags of newspapers, and he bought one to catch up on the latest news.

It was the same old fear-mongering news.

"I am just waiting for the news about the Perverted Justice raid. That is coming in the following days, I am sure of it, once the Guild validates my claims."

He thought out loud, then found a garbage can by the sidewalk and tossed the newspaper into it, as he had no more need for it.

A short walk later, he arrived at the beautiful cathedral, its stained glass windows catching the sunlight in a dazzling array of colors.

There were people already praying in the pews, heads bowed in reverence.