A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

Seeing two Mana-infused slugs strike the ground rather than into his target had filled Henry with an intense feeling of loss and thus, to mitigate any more such losses —which were likely considering his opponent's speed—, he needed a cheaper option.

It had cost Henry 60 Mana points to use <Guiding Shot> on every single one of the bullets he fired from his normal revolver but he was satisfied with the cost.

Missing shot after shot with 'The Hydra's Sting' would have cost even more Mana Points than that and missing with 'Violent Retort' would have cost him Mana-infused Slugs of which his supply was currently limited.

'The Hydra's Sting' being a magical weapon was capable of shooting faster than the normal average revolver but even that faster firing speed did not fill Henry with confidence. Which was the reason for this experiment of sorts with bullets he knew could do nothing against the Undead Knight.

And of course, the experiment was a success and now Henry knew he could save on his more magical bullets and magical shots by using his normal Revolver to mark an enemy with <Guilding Shot> which would then ensure the success of the next shot. The strategy was sound and he filed it away as Nyx rose out of the shadow and now stood by his side.

In a second, Henry was in her saddle and in the next, she had galloped to where the Undead Knight had been blasted.

The explosion of <Acidic Combustion> had taken off the Undead Knight's arm and a chunk of its torso with it. The Armor pieces worn on the affected side of its body were now mangled messes of magical steel. Dive into the story on m|vl em pyr

The Undead Knight grunted and made a sound like an attempt to speak and it tried to rise off the ground despite the impactful explosion that had struck it down in the first place.

Henry put a quick end to such attempts by exchanging his normal revolver for Violent Retort and with precise aim, he fired the slugs through the gaps in the Undead Knight's helmet so they struck its head and knocked it back in a kickback while exploding its decaying skull to pieces.

And then, as the Undead Knight slumped never to move again, it came;

Henry hadn't even yet thought to put down his gun-wielding hand, that his mind was wrenched from his body and supplanted into a strange one. He was supplanted into the body of the Undead Knight he just killed. Except the Knight was not yet Undead.

Henry couldn't see the Knight's face as he was looking through her eyes. Yes, she was a 'she'. Her delicate hands and the unmistakable swell of her breast were impossible to miss.

The Knight was bowed as she said slowly and confidently,

"My Lord. Do as you wish. My Oath is to serve you until the end of my days."

A skeletal hand stretched toward her as though to beckon her over. Except it didn't call for her. When the owner of the skeletal hand spoke, the voice was silky and packed with such authority that Henry found himself starting to believe he should be serving the figure. The voice stirred up loyalty in him even though this was the first time he had ever heard it.

"The end of your days may never come," the figure said in that silky authoritative voice and then it clenched its outstretched skeletal hand.

Strings of powerful violet Mana wove into existence and created a network that eventually became a spell circle.

The Female Knight felt gripped by a powerful energy that drove deep into her body. It snuffed out the essence of her humanity and replaced it with something dead— Beyond living.

Her skin began to decay and it dried up so that any feature that marked her as female was gone and she became quite generic. It was a painful process. It felt like acid was eating away at her flesh and that, in turn, felt like Acid was eating away at Henry's flesh.

He groaned in pain. Strained against it and renounced any part of himself —past and future— that ever missed this sensation just for the greed of some extra Exp.

'Fuck!' Henry cussed but even as he strained, he knew the pain would only end when the Undead Woe was over.

The transformed Knight, now Undead, looked up and for the first time, Henry got the clearest view of the powerful figure that had plagued the woes of every Undead he had eliminated since he entered this Dungeon.

The face was skeletal and black but it was clean. Unlike the Undead it had created, who all possessed varying degrees of decay, this powerful figure carried a hint of elegance despite lacking any skin. It was even clad in a luxurious purple robe.

"Rise, Knight," the powerful skeletal figure said, and as the Undead —whose glowing hollow eyes Henry was looking through— stood off the ground and straightened from its bow, the powerful skeletal figure produced something pulsing with energy but it glowed so bright that Henry couldn't quite clearly see its shape.

The glowing whatever-it-was began to rise toward the ceiling. Gripped by curiosity, Henry tried to follow it but his point of view was locked into that of the Undead whose Woe he was experiencing.

Speaking of which, it was not quite a woe.

Everything was consensual and even now —turned into an Undead decaying thing—, the Knight had only gratitude for its Lord and stood ready for instructions.

The glowing thing was gone from view now but even as it moved, the powerful skeletal figure never took its eyes, horrible and tragic as they were, off its Undead subject,

"Go now," it said in a gentle tone that carried every bit of authority it had proven itself capable of already,

"Guard my door and let none step into this Chamber."

"As you wish, My Lord," The Undead Knight said and as it turned toward the metal door that was opened inward, Henry saw —surprised— that there had been others.

The other Undead Knights had also been kneeling and had received the same painful and in-depth Undead transformation as well as the same directive to guard the door.

And then the vision was over and Henry was back in his body.

He had no idea how long he spent in the 'Undead Woe' and he didn't care.

[Kill-Reward: 800 Exp]

[Undead Woes: 1000 Exp]

[Nyx has received 400 Exp for her contributions to the kill.]

Again, Henry didn't care.

As he swiped the notification away, the recent Undead Woe remained on his mind and he could not shake the curiosity he felt for the glowing pulsing thing the skeletal creature had hidden away. He also couldn't stop thinking about the skeletal figure itself.

All about the Hall, multiple fights were nearing conclusion.

Spurred on by their anger at having lost a Charge, Eloise and Aurelius seemed to have gained a renewed vigor, and, working together, they had cut up another Undead Knight and were on their third victim with victory almost certainly assured.

Louis and Andor were there as well. The Undead Knight Eloise and Aurelius were currently battling had come after the Mage and Fighter first and was the reason they had not been able to assist Henry. Fortunately, he hadn't quite needed it.

The Groups that Henry and the others had met in the Hall —who were already engaged in battles with the Undead Knights— had lost many members and some had lost body parts. But Norbert was still alive and he rallied them all together to fight a second Knight just after they had managed to defeat their first.

Solemnly, Henry picked their Undead Knight opponent as his mark.

They had the thing cornered and all through their pain, they prepared to go in for the killing strike. Alas, they had held the creature down just right in place for Henry to shoot through the gaps in its helmet with Mana-infused Slugs.

The group rounded on him with eyes wide at his audacity.

Henry didn't care.

He hadn't done it for the reward, even if more Exp never sounded bad to him.

He had done it so he could maybe get another angle on what the skeletal figure had hidden away which was why he embraced the Undead Woe and allowed his mind to be pulled into hopefully, another insightful vision.