A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

[Shocking Grip:

By touch, discharge lightning from your palm in a powerful pulse.

Cost: 50 Mana Points.]

'Not bad for my first imprint,' Henry thought. He had seen Louis cast at least one spell more powerful than this but seeing as his <Insight> had failed to analyze those, he was relatively content with what he had got.

Besides, it was very needed at the moment seeing as he was almost completely out of Shotgun slugs and should the Dungeon raid persist, he'd be out of 'Hydra's Tongue' bullets soon as well. Of course, there was still the issue of depleting Mana Points and no way to recover more…

"We're close," Louis said suddenly.

"What?" Henry said, confused but before Louis could make himself clearer —if he even wanted to—, Doherty and the Mercenaries stopped walking.

They had arrived at a large metal door and with everyone else hanging back, Doherty stepped toward the door and placed a hand against it. He drew his hand slowly and cautiously across the surface and smiled as he nodded,

"Alright, boys. Get those bags ready for some loot."

As he spoke, Doherty rubbed his hand across the door as though searching for a handle to pull the door with or at least some kind of keyhole that could signal a spot of activation.

He found none so, like anyone else who possessed Mana would, he infused Mana into the door.

*Whuuum!*

With a low thrumming, the door reacted to Doherty's Mana and a violet glow appeared around the door's edges, and then, with an eerie *click*, it opened an inch.

Doherty gave the door a push and when it swung inward, he gestured to be followed as he led the way in.

Henry wrinkled his nose when he was a foot from the door and his eyes stung when he walked through it. Whatever scent of death Doherty had perceived when they first stepped into the Dungeon was ten times worse in this room.

The room was massive with columns reaching from the floor to the considerably high ceiling. The floor was covered in strange vines that Henry could have sworn he saw move.

Besides, the vines, all over the room were bodies that looked to still be in the process of decay. Some had half their faces peeled away, leaving behind a view of their blackened bones. Some had sockets that were missing and the ones that had eyes lacked eyelids to cover them with.

"Fucking Hell—" Henry said.

"Incredible," Louis said by his side.

Ignoring the wide-eyed boy's unnatural interests in dungeons —to the point where this nauseating display was incredible to him—, Henry looked around for what else the room had to offer.

There were three sarcophagus in the room and it was on them that Doherty's attention was focused.

"Come on," he urged, "Let's open them up."

Leading the way as 'Captain', Doherty stepped toward one of the Sarcophagus but the moment he placed a hand on it and before he even got the chance to push off the lid, the door into the room slammed shut with a *Bang!*.

"Not good," one of the Mercenaries said, stating the obvious as he drew his sword out of his sheath only to pause with his eyes wide as a sword stabbed through his back,

"Ack!" The Mercenary let out and made to wheel around to decapitate his attacker.

Unfortunately for him, vines twisted on the ground and wrapped around his body to hold him down long enough for a sword to swing right through his neck, causing his head to hit the ground and bounce once, twice before rolling to a stop.

"Holy Shit!" another Mercenary said and reacted quickly enough to not suffer the same fate.

All around the room, the decaying bodies began to rise off the ground with a decaying green glow bright within their chest.

"Fight!" Doherty yelled like that was ever in question, "Once they're dead— well *more* dead, we can loot!"

Henry noted that Doherty remained sure that there was loot in the Sarcophagus. He wondered if that was a matter of experience or just guesswork but quickly decided that was not what was important at the moment.

Even without <Insight>, Henry could tell this bunch of decaying undead were on a different level to the skeletal ones they had killed on their way here. The green glow in their chests was Magic just waiting to be unleashed.

He pulled 'Violent Retort' from its holster and retrieved 'The Hydra's Sting' from his Inventory, knowing it would be needed, but as the Decaying Undead crept over, Henry heard Louis speak by his side.

"This is it," Louis said.

"This is what?" Henry asked.

"This is how we get free!" Louis said before yelling out a spell and striking out lightning to blast three Decaying Undead away.

Louis' attack only successfully completely eliminated one of the three he attacked but he didn't seem to mind. He was far too busy grinning with delight with that crazed look in his eyes.

"How?" Henry asked him. The 'plan' had always been crazy and that was especially the case now since Henry felt they were in far more immediate danger at the moment than Doherty.

Doherty was striking down Undead or at least keeping them away from him far better than the rest of the Raiding Party.

In the second he spent waiting for Louis to answer, Henry aimed 'Violent Retort' and fired a shot that blasted an Undead away.

"Ahh!" He yelled as his mind was pulled into the Undead's woes.

This pain was greater. The undead he just eliminated used to be a Fighter and died in battle against a powerful being. The very same Powerful Figure that the other Undead Woes Henry had suffered so far had revealed to him.

Stabbed over and over with blades conjured with magic and all glowing a sickly violet color, and having his very Mana turned against him and used to manipulate him from the inside out— The Undead's last moments were spent in agony.

As usual, Henry was back to normalcy almost the very same second he was pulled in.

[Kill-Reward: 150 Exp]

[Undead Woes: 400 Exp]

Clearly, according to the System, the more Henry suffered from the woes, the more he was to be rewarded.

It was then that Louis yelled back to him in answer to his question,

"The Sarcophagus. I need to open it."

"Why?" Henry asked. He was getting used to the Undead Woes and found it fairly easy to keep track of the conversation he was having before it happened.

"Can't you feel it?" Louis asked,

"There's powerful Magic coming from one of them!"

"There is?" Henry asked.

"Cover me!" Louis called out and started running toward the Sarcophagus.

"Wait—" Henry tried to call out but besides the fact that Louis did not look like he was going to listen, an Undead came at him and he had to lean to the side to avoid a sword slash.

As its attack missed, the Undead let loose its sickly mana that carried a strong whiff of death in a surge that smacked at Henry.

"Ugh!" Henry let out as he was forced a few feet away and as his back struck into a column, he looked over at Louis.

Louis was about two feet away from a Sarcophagus and had just let loose his powerful lightning attack to knock a few attacking Undead away but one remained relentless and came charging at him still.

Henry intercepted that Undead with a shot of the last slug in 'Violent Retort' and with a bang that blasted a hole through the Undead's chest, Louis completed his Journey to the Sarcophagus and placed his arm on its stony lid.

Right then, the Undead that had smacked Henry away with its sickly Mana surge stabbed his sword at him. Henry sidestepped the attack, sent 'Violent Retort' into his Inventory, and slammed a palm into the Undead's chest.

Shocking Grip!

Lightning surged from Henry's palm and struck the glow in the Undead's decaying chest with a powerful pulse.

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