A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

Monstrosities. Plural.

With his eyes wide in horror, Henry glanced at the carcass of the one that had taken so much effort to defeat,

'More of that thing?' Fucking Hell!'

Henry looked back at the doors they had walked through to enter this Hall and they just then slammed shut. Trapping them in with the only path to escape being the large door at the end of the Hall.

The seconds ticked then and Henry looked at Louis who was still breathing deeply and whose legs appeared too weak for him to move with.

"Come on," Henry said and bent low to grab Louis and pull him off the ground.

"What- what's happening?" Louis asked. He was too tired and too magically drained for his ability to detect magical offsets in his environment to work as well as it should.

"We need to get the hell away from here," Henry told him as he hoisted him onto Nyx's saddle.

"WE NEED TO GET AWAY FROM HERE!" Henry yelled in a voice that spread all about the Hall and drew the eyes of everyone to him.

Andor paused his Weapon gathering and looked back at Henry, reacting not to the volume of the yell but rather to the edge of panic it carried.

"Run!!!" Henry yelled at him, "Head for the door… Actually, get over here."

Henry gestured frantically and after shoving the last of the weapons he had gathered into his bag, Andor walked over to Henry who then gestured at Nyx's saddle behind Louis,

"Get on!"

Andor obeyed immediately and sat and hoisted himself into Nyx's saddle.

At the time, Eloise, Aurelius, and their Party of Squires reacted to Henry's yell by glancing at him and wondering what was cause for panic.

Aurelius was about to yell out and question Henry for not speaking plainly when Eloise held out a hand to tell him to stop.

She sensed something. An ominous aura oozed from every single part of the Hall's floor. Including the part of the ground that wasn't segmented into squares.

At that moment, she understood Henry's panic and she shared it. She didn't cast her magic detection spell. There was no need to when the ominous energy was not being at all elusive.

"Run!" She yelled.

Luckily for their party, she had managed to awaken all unconscious Squires and while they were all suffering from some level of fatigue, they were capable of still running for their lives. Experience the excitement on m_vl_em_p_yr

Aurelius and Eloise led the run but then…

*RUMBLE*

… A deep sound came from the very ground on which they ran and it began to shake violently. Like it was a platform that was being shaken giant hands. Like whatever was coming was getting impatient.

Henry saw the timer tick down more seconds as he got onto Nyx's back behind Andor and the horse took off toward the end of the Hall. The ground shook and threw off her gait because, although Nyx's body became shrouded in the dark mist of <Shadow Dash>, she was not exempt from the effects.

However, with some whinnies, she got across the Hall with time to spare. Henry got down from her saddle immediately and approached the large door. Unlike the other doors he had seen since his entry into the Dungeon, this one had a handle which he wasted no time gripping to pull the door open and reveal a large doorway that Nyx quickly moved through.

Louis and Andor got out of her saddle then and took even more steps away from the doorway because, while they had not seen or sensed what Henry had apparently seen/sensed. The rumblings could not possibly have been a good omen.

Henry expected the System to alert him for the completion of the Time-Sensitive Quest. After all, he had secured the safety of his three Party members (Louis, Andor, and Nyx).

"Is it— Is it not over yet?" Henry asked when the System still did not update him.

[You have made it through the door but the danger is not over yet.]

'The Quest detail was to get through the door. We are through the door,' Henry pointed out.

[The System has determined the Quest is still incomplete. There are others at risk of triggering the symbols and should the Monstrosities still get summoned, you will die even though you have gotten past the door.

Your death will contradict the Quest's Third Reward so again; The Danger is not over yet and the Quest is still incomplete.]

'You Fuck—' Henry thought but then realized it was silly to get worked up about Exp. All that Exp and another Level-Up would not help him survive against multiple Monstrosities anyway.

He looked at the corridor sprawling behind him and wondered if running would help and then he looked back through the open door at the Knight Party struggling to move.

The ground rumbling and shaking was making it difficult for them to cross the Hall. Eloise and Aurelius looked like they were well on their way to adapting. The problem was the Squires who, due to their inexperience and comparatively low Stats, were stumbling and looked likely to get left behind.

But neither Eloise nor Aurelius could let that happen; Whether due to a virtuous desire to save lives or a reluctance to have a blemish as huge as a Squire's death —during a training exercise that should not have resulted in Casualties— on their record. Either way, the Party was slowed down.

There was also the fact that, unlike Henry, they had no idea they were on a Timer. Eloise suspected but her senses were far from accurate enough to inform her they only had a few more seconds to get across.

"Nyx," Henry called out with an urgency the Knight Party was lacking.

"-On it!-" Nyx answered like she had already been considering making a move.

She dashed into the hall, moving so fast that she was barely swayed by the violent ground shakes.

"Thank you," Eloise told her and waved for the Squires to get on first. Nyx had four of them on her back and would have carried more had there been room.

As quickly as she had galloped into the Hall, Nyx was back galloping through the door where the Squires got off and allowed her to go back and rescue more.

The second trip saw Nyx rescue the rest of the Squires off the Hall's floor. Without being bored down by the Squires they practically had to drag along, both Eloise and Aurelius moved faster than they had before and pulled so close to the doorway that Nyx riding out to ferry them to safety no longer seemed needed.

"Get in!" Henry yelled when he saw the two slack off in their journey to safety when they were now two feet away from the doorway.

Eloise wasn't sure why but she was spurred on by Henry's yell and made the next two steps with a leap through the doorway. Aurelius followed after and his feet had just left the ground when the large timer presented to Henry by the System counted down to '0'.

At that very moment, red symbols glowed on every single part of the Hall floor, dyeing it in glowing red that gave off an ominous feel.

The Violent rumble and shake of the ground didn't lessen. If anything, it became more intense like the Monstrosities were upset they hadn't gotten anyone to activate their summoning.

It was a curious thing that, now that they were all safe and away from any accidental summoning, they just watched the Hall's floor shake and it didn't affect the corridor they were all in. It was like the Hall was an entire section of the Dungeon that was independent of the rest of it.

[Quest Completed!]

[You have received 250 Exp]

[All three Party Members survived]

[You have received a bonus of 750 Exp]

[You Live.]

[You have Leveled Up!]

[You are now Level 23]