A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

At the cost of Mana, unleash a Telekinetic force from your hand to summon an object into your hold.

Note: This spell only works on Inanimate objects and the heavier the object is in proportion to your body\'s strength stat, the more difficult it will be to summon.

Costs: 5 Mana Points for 10 seconds of continuous activation.]

Witch\'s Hold!

Activating the spell was as easy as activating any of the other two spells Henry currently had imprinted on his Arcane Tapestry. His hand became coated in Mana and he could feel it itching to attract something.

\'But what?\' Henry thought. He cast his eyes around on an object to test the spell on and his eyes fell on an Arrow shaft sticking out of the ground. He directed the spell to it and the shaft shook slightly before pulling out of the ground and into his hold like metal attracted by a magnet.

As he looked the arrow over, Henry was sure it was the one that had cut through his shoulder earlier and cost him 20 Hit Points. At the very least, it was an arrow fired by one of the Orcs.

"Hmm," he let out as he stroked his hand across the arrow shaft before stopping at the arrowhead. There was something about the metal that attracted his attention.

The arrow\'s make was not at all exquisite. In fact, it was very crude, and whoever made it seemed to just be okay with the fact that it was aerodynamic enough to be fired and sharp enough to puncture enemies.

But, the crude making of the Arrow aside, the metal…

As though the System had detected Henry\'s curiosity, it promptly provided a description screen;

[Y\'Nth Arrowhead;

Description: Although crafted crudely, the magical properties of the Y\'Nth metal make it so this Arrow remains capable of performing interesting feats.

As is the case with the raw patent material, The Y\'Nth arrowhead absorbs Mana from the atmosphere and reinforces itself in a foundational improvement that can be built upon by its wielder.]

\'Well, I suppose that explains why a scratch from the arrow cost me so much Hit Points,\' Henry thought, \'It\'s a special arrow.\'

While Henry was reading through the description and turning the Arrowhead this way and that, he heard an exclamation,

"Hang on," A Mercenary said, "These Arrows…"

Henry recognized the Mercenary. He was the one who had just now tried to convince the Clerics that the slaves didn\'t deserve to be healed.

"What is it, Kon?" Gareth asked. After Henry had looked away from him, the leader of the Mercenaries decided to keep his suspicions to himself. At least for now. He was awaiting Boyle\'s order to continue moving when the Mercenary named Kon exclaimed about an Arrow.

"Take a look yourself," Kon said and stretched the Arrow out to Gareth to observe.

It took all of three seconds of observation for Gareth\'s eyes to widen in almost the same level of elation as Kon\'s,

"Y\'Nth metal?" He asked almost in disbelief.

Kon nodded. He had picked up other arrows that had been fired by the Orcs and he held them out,

"All the Arrows have got \'em," he said.

"Round them all up," Gareth said, "Now!"

"What\'s Y\'Nth metal?" Henry heard Andor ask Eloise merely three feet away from him.

Eloise eyed the excited Merchants and began to explain,

"Y\'Nth is a special metal capable of absorbing Mana for self-reinforcement. It\'s very rare. In the whole of Valaeren, there have been maybe three deposits found and they\'ve all been tapped out. An Ounce of the stuff is worth thousands of Gold.

Learning Y\'Nth can be found in Dungeons made it one of the many treasures that inspired expeditions into Dungeons but even inside Dungeons, it\'s still very rare. Or at least, it should be."

"What do you mean?" Andor asked, taking note of Eloise\'s tone at the end of her explanation.

Eloise shrugged and gestured at the arrows the Mercenaries were now piling up,

"Every one of those arrowheads is made with the stuff and it was being used disposably so there must be a surplus of it in this Dungeon. That\'s an insane fortune just waiting to be mined."

Eloise didn\'t sound excited about this and Henry understood why. It was clear in the eyes of the Mercenaries; Greed.

So quickly, they were forgetting why they were even here in the first place and getting sucked into the thought of scampering off with the wealth they had discovered.

When the fired arrows had all been recovered, the Mercenaries began to seek out the bodies of the Orcs to retrieve their Quivers that held arrows that had yet to be fired.

"What are those things anyway?" Andor asked.

Orcs," Eloise said, "They\'re small though."

"Small?" Andor repeated with slightly wide eyes. Small was not a description he\'d used for a creature well past six feet.

"For an Orc, yeah they\'re small," Eloise said, "And it\'s not a matter of strength or the difference in the Floors of the Dungeons they are in. Orcs are just very imposing.

At least the ones outside are."

"Outside?" Henry interjected to ask, "You mean outside the Dungeon."

Eloise nodded slightly absentminded while she watched the Mercenaries continue to source for Orc corpses to rob,

"Yes, outside the Dungeon.

There used to be a lot of them but they were hunted down to provide space for human civilization to fester.

There are still a few though but they\'ve been hunted essentially out of Valearen. As far as I\'ve heard, a few of their tribes wander the lands between Nation borders trying to repopulate. Doesn\'t seem to be going all too well for them."

"Why not?" Henry asked.

Eloise shrugged,

"Who knows? Maybe they\'re still hunted. Or maybe they just kill each other in fits of rage. They\'re a violent sort. Once in a while though, a foolhardy tribe tries to step foot in Valearen and stake claim to some part of its land but they are always killed off or chased away." Read new adventures at empire

"Where did they come from?" Henry asked and then clarified in case it was needed, "The Orcs, I mean."

"As far as we know, they\'ve been here as long as we have. Maybe even longer. In fact, some say they\'re signs of a previous \'Reckoning\'. That they spilled out of the Dungeons and killed the humans who once settled here and made it their homes before a new set of humans came and drove them off again. I think that\'s nonsense." Eloise said with a scoff.

"Why?" Andor asked before Henry could. He had been very drawn in by Eloise\'s retelling.

Eloise shrugged as she explained her reasoning,

"The \'Reckoning\', as predicted, will not just end with the death of humans and the festering of Orcs. It\'s the end of the world as we know it. The amount of creatures that will spill out, the destruction that will follow… Nothing will survive.

If there was already a Reckoning, nothing would exist. There would have been no humans to defeat any monsters and the sheer mass of creatures that spill out of the ruptured Gates will cause the world\'s structure to crumble. It will all be over.

So there can\'t have been a \'Reckoning\' ever.

Besides, I have seen creatures in Dungeons that appear about as human as you and I. If we explain the presence of the Orcs of old by a \'Reckoning\', that will mean our presence here might also have been the result of one. And even if that were the case, the point is moot still. It doesn\'t change the fact that the Orcs and other monstrous races were here first and we sent them packing."