A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

"Alvareen," Jonas answered just as Al stepped away from the fire and walked to the Carriage.

"Where's that?" Henry asked.

Al returned now with a large package that he set beside the fire before he began to arrange sticks in a pattern Henry recognized was for roasting Meat. Sure enough, Al unwrapped the package to reveal pieces of meat that had been dried for preservation. He speared them on sticks and sprinkled on seasoning he provided from his satchel before arranging them next to the fire.

"Alvareen is a Northern City," Jonas said, calling Henry's attention away from the Meat,

"Speaking of which, you might want to get used to the cold. It's only going to get worse."

A moment of silence passed as the meat smoked by the fire and soon they were ready to eat. Jonas, Al, and Eli began grabbing the sticks and biting into the meat with none of them offering Henry any.

"I'm sorry, I have to ask," Henry said eventually.

"For meat?" Jonas asked with a smile while Al and Eli glared at him like they were worried he'd offer to share.

"No," Henry said, "For your Employer. Who is he?"

"He's your employer now too," Jonas said and laughed when Henry's expression turned sour,

"Hahaha, you'll get used to it."

Henry shook his head,

"No, I don't think I will," he said, "I don't think I'll be doing much work for him, to be honest."

Jonas laughed and waved his stick of meat in Henry's face,

"You're not the first to say that. Matter of fact, you all say that at first. A couple jobs later and you're as docile as a lamb.

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The one we had in that cage before you was worse though. Fucker went nuts and killed himself to 'escape'."

Henry's eyes widened and his eyes went to the cage,

"He died in there?" He asked.

"Yes," Jonas nodded nonchalantly, "Smashed his head against the wall as many times as he needed to break it open."

"When was this?" Henry asked.

Jonas scratched his bearded jaw for a bit.

"That was two days before we bought you from Maude Aleric," he said and then shook his head with a sigh,

"A damn shame too. We came all the way from Alvareen for him and he died before we could even start the journey back.

Would have been a wasted trip had Maude Aleric not reached out and given you to us. You made this trip not a total waste.

And I know you're not going to kill yourself."

"What makes you so sure?" Henry asked. He, of course, had no intentions of suicide but didn't like his captor sounding so sure.

Jonas scoffed,

"Please, it's obvious you want to live. Must be killing you not to think about running every few seconds but I know you haven't given up."

"AH!" Henry said as his body spasmed. Jolts of electricity had driven hard into his brain.

"Please don't bring it up," he told Jonas as he tried to temper his yell.

Jonas laughed and went back to munching on meat.

"You never answered," Henry pointed out, "Who's your employer?"

"What good will a name do you?" Jonas asked with a smirk,

"You don't even know of Alvareen so how would you know of one of the important people who run its commerce?

Don't ask anymore. The answer is pointless to you."

Henry considered disagreeing but stopped himself to ask another question that had plagued him,

"What's the work your Employer wants me for?" He asked.

Jonas shrugged,

"There's a lot of work for Awakened like you. Mostly in security but you could also be involved in the one of the most profitable businesses of the Modern day; Dungeon Raiding."

"Huh?" Henry asked as he blinked a few times.

Henry remembered the Vyker Angus once questioned mentioning something about Dungeons and Angus had then given a short explanation that he could hardly be bothered to keep in mind back then so his knowledge of it was foggy at best and non-existent at worst.

"Dungeon Raiding," Jonas repeated,

"These portal things that people can just walk into and get snapped up by monsters that'll devour them in two bites or less.

It's all the rave now. Nobles want it to train their fighters, Merchants want it to reap materials they can sell for insane profits and the people just hope the Day of reckoning doesn't come too soon."

"'Day of Reckoning'?" Henry repeated taking note of how ominous that sounded.

Jonas waved his worried tone away,

"Just a term the common people use to describe the coming consequences of Dungeon Raiding. No big deal. No big fuss.

To people like my Employer, Dungeons are more Gold mines than actual Gold mines."

'Yeah, I'm definitely not doing that,' Henry thought to himself. It was not so much the ominous tone of the whole thing that put him off as much as it was the idea of doing that work for one fat cat's benefit.

Time passed and soon, Jonas, Al, and Eli had eaten all their smoked meat. Al and Eli walked to the Carriage and returned with three bedrolls that they laid on the ground around the fire.

"We should get some sleep now," Al said in a gruff voice, "Dangerous journey tomorrow."

"Ah yes," Jonas said, nodding, "Right."

"Dangerous?" Henry asked, "Why dangerous?"

"We'll be going through a Mountain Pass to reach Alvareen and it's dangerous terrain. Steep slopes and narrow roads that are prone to breaking down. Also, there are Bandit checkpoints to worry about but of course, you'll be in your cage so you'll have nothing to worry about."

As he spoke, Jonas stood to his feet and gestured for Henry to come along as he led the way back to the Cage.

As he walked, Henry looked around and took in the scenery. Especially the direction the Carriage was going to be riding in, come morning. It was easy to tell because he could see the Mountains —snow-peaked as they were—, some tens of Kilometres away.

If he needed to make a break for it, he'd still be unfamiliar but at least not totally confused. Hopefully.

As he entered the cage, Henry endured the jolts firing into his head and forced his mind to focus despite it. Something about the danger Jonas had talked about gave him an idea and he'd be damned if he let pain stop him.

Of course, he was still careful. Through multiple trials that lasted hours into the night, and quite a bit of spasming pain, Henry felt he now had a good grasp on what triggered the control-cuff's reactions and now that he knew, he could avoid that and still try and plan for an eventuality.

Calling up his Status screen, Henry decided to make use of his 30 unallocated Stat Points all for the purpose of preparation;

'20 into Agility and 10 into Perception.'

[Are you sure?]

'I'm sure.'

[Agility: 30 ———> 50]

[Perception: 21 ———> 31]

The addition to his Perception was because Henry was hoping to get another level-up in his <Insight> and although his Perception was certainly sharper and seemed to pulse with an interesting intensity, a level-up was not forthcoming.

Stomaching the disappointment, Henry laid down on the cage's base and decided to get some sleep. For tomorrow, he'd certainly need his energy and to be at his possible best.