Mercy was surprised, though she knew she shouldn't have, that the next stop happened to be the gates, well the East one anyhow. There five gates along the walls that enclosed Arcvale and kept out the dangerous wilds, out for the most part.

The things that the walls were meant to keep out sometimes got in, usually via negligence, ineptitude or on those rare occasions, sabotage. Upon seeing that they were headed to the gate, Mercy knew, broadly speaking what her mother's intentions were. It no doubt included getting some hands on experience. Mercy could have tried her hand at arguing, but her she lacked the satisfactory CHA to persuade her mother. Also, her family was notorious for the sink or swim philosophy, especially as they loved tossing folk into the deep end.

Mercy watched as the guards at the approaching gate gave them, or rather her mother a love sick salute. With nary a word they hopped to action getting the gate open, a task which involved cranking a wheel levy system at ridiculous speeds. Then in something of an odd move according to 18 years of evidence to the contrary, her mother thanked them for their help and service. Red flags of every shade sprung up in Mercy's mind, and she suddenly found herself wanting to turn around and go home. Of course she knew that wasn't an option, but hey a girl could dream. Mercy had quite a few of those sorts of dreams.

For the first time in her life, as far as she could recall, Mercy stepped beyond the walls. She felt instantly vulnerable, her hand flying toward her hip were her gun rested in its new holster. She didn't draw it, mostly due the smirk on her mother's face. With someone as strong as the Princess of Blood so close by, it was unlikely for anything to attack them. While Mercy understood that to some extent, she also wouldn't put it past her mother to suddenly not be around when the shit hit the fan, calling it training.

Mercy walked just behind her mother, her eyes darting to and fro for signs of ambush. None came as they approached a clearing a good quarter hour away. There Mercy spotted her first monster, a wild zombie elf. Shambling around in seemingly random patterns, it seemed to bounce off an invisible barrier every once in a while.

"Alright, dear, go ahead and start taking them down." Her mother said in a tone Mercy unfortunately recognized. It was one that wouldn't allow for back talk or whining. So instead of either, Mercy sighed and whipped out her colt, already loaded with bullets she'd crafted.

Leaning on Firearm Mastery, Mercy held her gun with two hands, bracing her legs and aimed at the zombie elf. She took a breath, pulled back the hammer, then squeezed the trigger. There was a loud bang, and a click as the cylinder spun one slot over. The barrel kicked up from recoil, and for just a second Mercy closed her eyes.

Opening them again she glanced at the zombie. A good portion of its shoulder had been carved out from the shot. Both happy and disappointed, Mercy reset her aim and went for a second shot. It was better in that it hit the zombie's chest, but it hadn't been brought down. What it did do was aggravate the monster.

It came charging toward Mercy. Freaked, Mercy closed her eyes and fired again. Then she heard a ding. Opening her eyes she saw that she had actually brought the undead retch down, with a shot to the head. She turned to her mother, who appeared patently unimpressed. Turning away she checked the notification.

To no surprise what so ever she had gotten a critical hit. What was a surprise was that the zombie only seemed to be worth about 15% towards her next level up. Some quick math, she realized she'd need at least 7 more zombies to level up. That meant going out further into the clearing, as she highly doubted that her mother would let her leave before getting that level.

Yet, before she could move on she felt a thump in her chest. She put a hand to her breast and quickly realized that the thump hadn't been her heart. She felt it again, and instinct took over. Reaching down Mercy placed her hand over the zombie body without actually touching it. A cold shock ran down her arm as the body vanished in a quick inferno of white ghostly fire. Then came the notifications.

[Ring of the Pale Rider has consumed wandering spirt - Lesser Wight

The following items have been stored

- Armor Scraps x 2

- Powdered bone x 2]

Mercy blinked, unsure of what to make of this. She wasn't gonna complain, but clearly it was something she'd have to explore in detail later. For the moment however she cast her gaze out toward more prey.

It took a few more zombies and a stint of running away in a panic to get something of a flow going. Every once in awhile she glimpsed her mother chuckling at her inept flailing. Still she discovered that she tended to make better shots one handed instead of with two. She still missed a good deal, but it got easier to aim, fire and recover, or run, depending on how things went. Then after each kill she incinerated the bodies, and her bound items took their due.

Mercy's back hugged a tree as she took a moment to reload.

She was thankful that she could create her own bullets with only an expenditure of MP. Otherwise she could see this being a truly expensive class. That said, it was still fairly expensive MP wise, as a batch of 6 bullets cost her 20MP to create, and she currently didn't have all that high of mana pool. Meaning she really needed to learn how to shoot.

With the last bullet slotted, Mercy took a breath, centering her mind, putting some of her idle thoughts on the back burner. She stepped away from the tree and turned toward the glade where there were a few more zombies wandering about mindlessly. Taking stock, she raised her colt and fired. She recovered her stance quickly and fired again.

The first shot hit the zombie once in the body, and then in the head, blowing a rather large hole through it. Mercy heard and subsequently ignored a ding as she shifted to the next one close by. It had been alerted to her, and Mercy wasted little time taking it down. Once it fell, she scanned the area before moving to collect her spoils. There were still zombies roaming about, but they had low detection fields. There was something going on that seemed to make her invisible to them, unless she start things first. Mercy had her suspicions, but didn't voice them.

Taking a moment, Mercy go over the notification that had popped up. Her eyes widened with glee upon reading it.

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Hexslinger lv. 1 -> 2.

Cha has increased by 4

Dex has increased by 4

You have gained one free stat

Firearm Mastery 1 -> 2

Spell Craft and Hexcraft options have been unlocked. You may now choose one class spell, and two hexcraft to learn.]

A small list of spells appeared before Mercy's eyes. She gave them a quick once over, but none of them seemed all that appealing. Then again, she had to remind herself that these were her class spells, and the low level ones at that. That being the case she chose [Cure Wounds].

Healing spells/skills were always a solid choice with a lack of other attention grabbing options. Once that was done, next came a longer list of what the system referred to as Hexcraft. Mercy wasn't certain what they were exactly, but at the moment it was far longer list that the regular spells.

Just going over the brief descriptions, Mercy got a better idea of what they were and how to use them. The problem wound up being trying to settle on just two. Going with her gut more than anything else she chose [Flight] and [Eldritch Shot]. The first one was foundation, as it wouldn't allow her to fly right off the bat. It would start with slow falls, a bit of levitation, before full on soaring.

The second one pretty much added some arcane oomph to her shots without have to expend a crap ton of MP. There were other things she could have grabbed. Wanted to grab as a matter of fact, but they'd have to wait.

Feeling pumped on her new level, Mercy looked toward the other zombies roaming about. She felt a need to get hunting.

The sun was setting by the time, her mother deemed it was best to get going. By then Mercy had gotten quite a bit more proficient at hitting what she aimed for, though there was a vast room for improvement. Still that hunting zeal had netted her another level. At this stage levels would be easy to come by thus she had to temper her excitement. At this stage levels would be easy to come by thus she had to temper her excitement. Though it couldn't stop her from beaming a smile or her mother from commenting.

"You did adequately." Chasity said as they trudged back to the gate. "Though you need to work on your marksmanship. And, your footwork. As well as -"

"Yes, yes I know, I have a lot of areas to improve upon." Mercy said cutting off her mother's tirade with a deep sigh.

Tuning out her mother for the moment Mercy looked over her status screen, focusing on her stats in particular.

[Name: Mercy Phillips

Race: Tiefling^ (expand for details)

Primary class: Hexslinger - Lv. 3 (4% to next level)

Secondary class: N/A

Titles: none

HP: 80/80

MP: 100/100

Stats:

STR: 3, DEX:18, CON: 5, INT: 7 CHA: 19

Free points available: 3]

With the new level she had three free points to plug into her other attributes. Looking over the spread she thought about where to put them. She dismissed STR out of hand. It wasn't all that useful at the moment. Both her DEX and CHA were fine leaving CON and INT. Both of them were essential, well more essential than STR anyhow. That said Mercy decided to dump her free points into INT.

[Name: Mercy Phillips

Race: Tiefling^ (expand for details)

Primary class: Hexslinger - Lv. 3 (4% to next level)

Secondary class: N/A

Titles: none

HP: 80/80

MP: 1300/130

Stats:

STR: 3, DEX:18, CON: 5, INT: 10 CHA: 19

Free points available: 0]

With that level and stat adjustment she unlocked the ability to summon a familiar. Which just made her smile expand more. Familiars were common enough in Arcvale. Growing up Mercy had always wanted one, but had to make due with dealing with one of her sister's, which didn't seem to like her at all.

As she thought about familiars on her way back to the gate to town, Mercy glanced at the ring on her finger. Staring at it she recalled the part about being able to summon mount. It had been one of the major reasons she had put the damned thing on in the first place. Stopping she closed her eyes, and let herself feel the connection to the ring, and a fraction of the power it held. With some clear assistance from the System Mercy activated the ring.

She felt her entire body go cold, then began to hear the low sounds of whispers, just before the clomping footsteps of a horse. From seemingly out of nowhere, a massive beast of a horse came galloping to her side. Yet, for how big it was, it was severely emancipated, consisting of just skin and bones with a pale ethereal white coat. A chilling inferno of eldritch green flames engulfed its hooves, and made up its mane, tail and eyes.

[Despair has answered your call]

The horse, Despair stared into Mercy's eyes. She could feel it judging her. It made a dismissive noise, that almost seemed like a sigh. Mercy felt both surprised and comforted by the fact that it didn't become hostile. She could feel power wafting off the horse, certainly more that she herself possessed.

"A Greater Undead Nightmare, huh." Chasity said gazing over Despair. "And, one that isn't instantly trying to kill and eat us. That's peculiar."

Despair made another dismissive snort that had Chasity raising an eyebrow. Ignoring the interplay between the demon horse and her mother, Mercy stepped forward holding out a hand. Despair turned to look at her, then leaned into being pet. Mercy took a few minutes taking her own measure of the monster horse, before attempting to mount him. A saddle and reigns appeared on their own, which she took hold of.

The moment she was settled, Despair took off at a burst of speed that nearly had Mercy flying off, and leaving Chasity in the dust, for all of five seconds. Though instead heading back to Arcvale, Despair took her further away.

For a moment or two Mercy attempted to get the horse to go back, but she quickly realised that wouldn't be happening. Clearly her mount had something else to do, and if Mercy didn't feel like going, well her only recourse was to jump off and more than likely break her neck.

"So, where are you going to exactly?" Her mother asked as she flew beside them with bat like wings.

"Not a clue." Mercy said, slightly panicked.

"Hmm." was her mother's reply. Mercy didn't like hearing such a reply. It usually meant bad things. "Well, this looks like it might take awhile. I'm heading back first. Have fun dear."

Those were the last words Mercy heard as her mother turned around and left. Mercy clamped her lips down from uttering a curse at the woman who bore her. Though, really she hadn't really expected anything else.

"So, where are we going?" Mercy asked, not expecting an answer. As expected she didn't receive one as Despair just galloped away leaving a spectral trail in his wake. With a sigh, Mercy just made herself more comfortable as they raced across the countryside to the seeming unknown. "Why exactly am I asking a horse?"