A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

Henry's eyes were still wide as he read through the description and it was then that the undead he had kicked to the ground earlier creaked closer and thrust its thin-bladed sword at his stomach.

Reflexively, Henry aimed 'Violent Retort' and fired a shot that blasted the undead's skull apart in a violent blast and as his victim crumbled up into a useless heap of bones, Henry's mind was pulled again.

The experience was similar to the last; Cowering, pleading, and then pain.

"Argh!" Henry groaned out loud as he shook his head and brought his vision back to normalcy.

[Kill-Reward: 100 Exp]

[Undead Woes: 200 Exp]

'Fuck, I hate that!' Henry let out but with more undeads creaking their way toward him, brandishing their weapons, he knew he had no choice but to eliminate more which meant he would also have to suffer their woes.

'Put my Stat Points into Agility.'

[Are you sure?]

'Yes.'

[Agility: 50 ———> 56]

While his Stat points were being allocated and his body was getting even lighter than before, Henry popped 'Violent Retort' open and pulled out two slugs from his gun belts to load into the barrels before snapping it back close with a click sound.

His Perception warned him of an attack coming from behind, and wheeling around, Henry slammed an elbow into a skeletal head but while he was in that motion, he felt a sharp pain in his side.

"Ah!"

[You have lost 10 Hit Points]

[Hit Points: 80/180]

Another undead had stabbed its sword into his ribs and with its jaws unhinged and letting out screeches while an eerie violet light glowed from within it like a power source, it pulled out its weapon and made to attack again.

Gritting his teeth at the pain, Henry shot the undead that had had his attention before the sneak attack, and with a skillful wheel-around, he shot the one that had sneak attacked him as well. Turning them both into harmless bony heaps at the same time and subjecting himself to twice the woes.

"Hngh!" Henry groaned as his entire body shook at the overload of pain it was subjected to.

"Fuck!" He let out when he was finally able to blink it away.

Somehow, because he had suffered two woes did not cause him to space out for longer. Those around him, even if they had been able to pay attention, would hardly have noticed anything besides his yell but that didn't matter to Henry because what he was experiencing was very real.

[Kill-Reward: 100 Exp]

[Undead Woes: 200 Exp]

[Kill-Reward: 100 Exp]

[Undead Woes: 200 Exp]

And so were the rewards.

Seeing as he was raking so much Exp from eliminating Undeads that were far weaker than he was physically and not at all capable of magic or Mana surging, Henry could not help but consider it a not-so-bad trade-off.

Sure, he hated the pain but it wasn't like he could avoid eliminating Undead. There was still a bunch of them and a good few of them seemed to have picked him as their targets.

'Ah, screw it!' Henry thought with determination as he reloaded 'Violent Retort',

"Come at me!"

As he spoke, Henry was very aware that he was soon running out of Mana-infused slugs for 'Violent Retort' so he pulled his normal revolver from his Inventory to run a little experiment.

Cocking the revolver's hammer, he fired several shots into an undead's skeletal frame and watched as the lead bullets barely did any damage and certainly did not destroy the undead or keep it down for any amount of time.

'Well, that settles it,' Henry thought with just a smidge of disappointment as he sent the revolver into his Inventory and pointed 'Violent Retort' so that the magically crafted weapon could succeed where the revolver had failed.

Louis had gotten pulled away from Henry due to the sheer number of Undead that came at him and now he returned close enough to Henry's side to catch his attention.

Henry had just suffered yet another Undead Woe when he saw Louis quite capably spinning his staff around and knocking Undeads aside sometimes with the tingle of lightning charges.

'Ah, yes,' Henry thought, 'The Imprint.'

He had tried once already and failed so now he had his eyes keened on the off chance that Louis cast a spell <Insight> could be able to analyze.

So far, he hadn't had any luck.

[Spell Analysis Failed]

[Spell Analysis Failed]

[Spell Analysis Failed]

[Spell Analysis Failed]…

Over and over, the message of failure appeared in glaring fonts on a screen that now seemed permanently burned into Henry's pupils.

He had eliminated six more undead and the horde was finally starting to thin out when Henry finally caught a glimmer of hope after multiple failed Analyses.

"Hng!" With a grunt of effort and a skillful one-handed move, Louis used the end of his Staff to knock aside a sword stab before he slammed the palm of his free hand into an Undead's bony skull.

Louis clenched his hand and yelled,

"Lichtnar!"

*Brrzzt!*

Lighting charged from his palm and into the Undead's skull in a pulse that hit hard enough to splinter its neck which was followed by the crumpling of bones.

Henry watched the entire sequence with his eyes wide as they glowed the faint blue of <Insight>.

[Analyzing Spell…]

The Undeads were done with now. Doherty and his gang of Mercenaries had gotten rid of the most and didn't appear to have broken a sweat.

As Doherty sheathed his sword, he looked over at Henry. He glanced at the gun in his hand and then the loops in the belt and smirked when he could tell the bullets were depleted.

"Out already?" Doherty asked with a short laugh, pulling Henry's eyes away from the analyzing screen that only he could see.

"What?" Henry asked.

Doherty gestured at the gun belt,

"The bullets. You're out already?" He said.

Henry looked down at the loops but he already knew they were empty. The last two shotgun slugs were currently in 'Violent Retort' waiting to be fired.

Doherty laughed then and when he spoke, it was in a low tone of voice that no one in the Raiding Party had trouble hearing,

"Now that you've got nothing, don't expect anyone to watch your back. Get dragged away or butchered up by those skeletal things for all I care.

Serves your kind right."

Doherty glanced over at those holding bows,

"Get your arrows from your kills. We're moving on!"

Soon, all retrievable arrows were back in quivers and the group was walking again into the dimly-lit gloom ahead.

"What will you do?" Louis asked by Henry's side.

"Hmm?" Henry said as the question caught him slightly by surprise because his eyes were back on the Analyzing Screen.

"What will you do with no more bullets?" Louis asked.

"I'll be fine," Henry answered just as a green check appeared on the Analyzing screen;

[Spell Analysis Complete]

[Spell: Shocking Grip]

[Would you like to Imprint 'Shocking Grip' onto your ~Arcane Tapestry~?]

'Yes. Yes, I would,' Henry answered with a smile.

[Select a spot…]

On a whim, Henry selected the back of his Right hand and the System took that as confirmation.

"Ah!" He let out. It came out louder than he would have liked because he hadn't expected the pain. The pain was a series of stings, like multiple needles pricking the back of his right hand all at once.

It lasted Fifteen seconds.

Henry knew this because the System had a timer on the screen.

And then it was over.

At the back of Henry's right hand was the magically tattooed image of a clenching hand and around that hand were spikes of Lightning.

Even as Henry stared at it, it thrummed with magical power and Arcane Knowledge that his Intelligence-stat-lacking mind could not quite comprehend.