"That's good Bell take careful ai-"

BOOM! The sound of an explosion could be heard for hundreds of feet as birds took flight and cawed as if angry for being disturbed when the white haired five year old shot his weapon, the Crystal Pistols interrupting his adoptive grandfather mid sentence with a massive circular jet of flame the diameter of a two story building.

"Look grandpa! I hit the target!' Shrieked the trigger happy five year old Bell Cranel.

"And destroyed it in the process. Which is all well and good Bell, but you need to learn control at this rate even if you can destroy hundreds of monsters in a single shot you won't be able to last 10 minutes. You will just run out of mana and pass out. If we were outside instead of this stone training room you would have set the forest on fire. Or if your friends are in front of you in the dungeon you'll end up killing them as well as your target." Said the boy's grandfather Andrew.

"Ok" mumbled the dejected child "How do I do that?"

"As you know only a Cranel can control the output so I can't tell you from personal experience but your father told me it was like imagining a river. The bigger it is the stronger the attack."

"Ok let me try" said Bell lining up the sights and as he pulled the trigger only a pittling flame the size of a candle flame came out.

"Good, you are making progress. Now try making its big enough to hit the target without demolishing it"

The next shot was considerably larger but instead of hitting the target it fell short a few feet away. The next few days consisted of Bell training to control his output determined to be able control his weapons like an extension of his own body.

After a week of training Bell grandfather deemed his control to be good enough to move onto the next stage, elementation. The Pistols could shoot many different types of blasts from jets of fire, and lightning bolts to blizzard gales and torrents of water.

As the young boy trained Andrew thought to himself "this boy is really something else. Even his father one of the most talented Sharpshooters in history wasn't able to progress at this rate; Bell is taking half the time on trials that his father did." Indeed the young boy was an outstanding prodigy. He has the power and endurance his father did at his prime.

After a short day the boy was able to switch between elements in about a minute. After a week he was able to do it in only a handful of seconds sending out lightning bolts, jets of flame, torrents of water, and boulders all of varying sizes and strengths within moments. This further surprised Andrew, who in all his long, long life had never seen a Cranel progress as quickly as Bell had.

"Bell there are two steps left in you training to master the pistols:

"Really!"

"Yes, I believe you are ready to move onto the next step tracking. When the two pistols are linked by an invisible thread. When the guns are separated you can use this thread to find and retrieve the other pistol as long as you have the other. For this stage I will hide one of the pistols somewhere and you will have to find it within an hour."

"Do you have any tricks for feeling the connection?" Inquired Bell.

"Yes, your great-grandfather told me that it was like there was a string attached to both pistols, and when moving one you would feel a slight tug if the pistol is moved further away from the other."

"Ok please start" said the young child as he handed the pistol to Andrew he pondered on just how old he was.

"Close your eyes and concentrate on your pistol. Try to feel a tug, it will be extremely light so pay attention" said the old man instructing the child while walking away. When he finished talking he switched directions so Bell wouldn't rely on his hearing to find the paired pistol.

Meanwhile Bell who was used to Andrew's antics was expecting a trick like this and was paying no heed to the direction of his grandfather's voice. Instead he was paying so much attention to his hand with the pistol, waiting for it to pull that he thought he felt a pull a few times before he realized it was his imagination before it faded as quickly as it came.

Finally after felt like a few hours to the youth but in reality was only a few minutes he felt a weaker pull to the left, however unlike the others, this time it didn't stop after a few seconds, once he realized this was the pull he waited for it to stop. He did this so if in his haste to find the pistol he didn't notice a turn his grandfather might make. After about ten minutes the pull stopped.

The youth sprinted up the steps into the open air of the plains above their training room. Once he reached the top he bolted to his left and quickly realized that he didn't know how far the pistol was. He stopped for a few minutes to think and realized that he could move the pistol in different directions to find which direction he didn't feel a pull. He felt a pull in all directions except for his right so he continued in that direction more carefully this time. Every so often he would repeat this process to confirm if it had been moved or not. After about thirty minutes he reached a small stream where he found his grandfather and the pistol.

"Great job Bell, you're the first Cranel I know to pass on their first attempt. As you beat it in forty minutes this time, you will need to finish in thirty minutes but first let me tell you more about the pistols."

"Ok, what else is there to know?" Questioned the confused Bell.

"First the pistols are enchanted to never break, no matter how much of a beating they take they won't take damage. Second there is a way to shoot them without using your own mana. You can load magic crystals from monsters into the bottom of the handle and it will use the magic inside of the crystals instead of yours, hence the name Crystal Pistols. Third there is a small chance that you may receive a skill called Convergence allowing you to combine the elements that you can use. For example you can combine water and fire to create steam for a smokescreen or fire and lightning for a bolt of lightning that is on fire. This may sound useless but it is faster than a regular fire shot and is more powerful than a normal lightning shot."

Once Bell heard about this Convergence skill he wanted it. He wanted it so bad he could taste it.

"Why didn't you tell me this before grandpa?"

"I forgot." said the old man while shamefully rubbing the back of his head. "Now back to training."

After two weeks Bell was able to find his guns in ten minutes having considerably more trouble with this stage then the others. After another week he was able to find it in five minutes even when he had to actively pursue Andrew. Naturally he was blindfolded so that he could not just watch him. Once he reached five minutes Andrew decided to advance him to the next stage as he wasn't able to progress any further and would progress with time anyway.

"Bell right now you are extremely skilled with the Pistols and will most likely get much better as you gain experience. However, right now you can't fight in close range or without them. So for the next stage you will be fighting me in hand to hand combat and fighting whatever monsters we can find with your pistols and other weapons. When you fight with the pistols you are not allowed to fire them."

"Grandpa will I ever start strength and speed training?"

"After this stage you will start do various strength exercises, sprints and long distance runs. Whenever you find a monster you are to kill it in whatever way you can. At the end of the day we will spar for an hour so you don't get rusty."

"Ok Grandpa. When will I be able to go to Orario to join a familia?"

"When you turn fifteen."

"Ok let's get started then"

The two walked back to the stone training room with large scorch marks and started to spar. For a long year Andrew had the upper hand and Bell lost over 90% of their sparring matches. Bell did the best with his pistols and smaller weapons like knives and daggers. After this first year Bell's body was the body of someone who constantly fights; full of lean muscle with baby fat long gone. After a year Bell started to win about 30% of their matches. As he grew and started to gain more skill he started winning more and more matches. After another year he was able to win most of their bouts. When he turned ten his finished with his training and was a master in fighting with his guns, knives and daggers. He was a proficient fighter with almost every weapon from pole-arms to maces.

Thats it for the first chapter. if you have any tips or ideas please send them to me