Silas crept silently through the hallway as an acrid stench began to waft from its depths.

The smell of sweat, shit, and blood began to burn his nostrils evermore as he continued down the path, this meant one thing. People were living there.

He took greater care to mask his presence after that, breathing softly and walking on the balls of his feet he continued further into the room.

It was a narrow rectangular setup, with rows of beds lining the walls of each side. The beds were crude things made of both straw and stone. And littering the floor was a smattering of bones and other detritus of life.

Silas set about examing the room as it appeared to be empty, he searched the bed and the floor eventually gaining nothing but blood and shit on his hands for his troubles.

He stood up annoyed and sat down on one of the putrid straw beds to think.

It had been a crazy few days, the system, the monsters and now this dungeon?! Silas was sure not all people could have the resolve to carry on, and now that he really thought about it, did he?

Silas had entered that tavern back in town for the express purpose of drinking himself to death, he knew god frowned upon suicide but with all the things Silas had done he was going to hell anyway. But after these last few days with the system, he had begun to regain the previous lease on life that he possessed during his youth.

The system had destroyed his plans for suicide so maybe that was it, maybe that was the reason for his acceptance of it? No, it was something else, something more primal. Speaking of the system, what was with that? It had come so suddenly to this world with absolutely no warning, turning so many lives on their heads.

But instead of being fearful like he should have, Silas had accepted it, took its road toward easy power with open arms. Why?

He pondered that question for a few minutes until he heard voices coming down the hallway. They spoke in the harsh language he had come to associate with demons and were approaching the room at a steady pace.

Fucking damn it Silas! Now was not the time to have a god damn existential crisis. He raged in his mind as they drew closer.

Fuck me! He thought self depreciatingly as he flipped over one of the stone beds and took cover behind.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Deja vu, he thought as he readied his pistol toward the door, and 5 imps entered through at a slow walking pace, maybe the system will help again? He thought sarcastically while preparing to fire on the imps before they left the enclosed hallway.

Congratulations, you have unlocked the active skill, "Stand Off" active skills have now been unlocked on your status please go there for further information.

Active Skills: Unlike masteries, active skills can be triggered to cause a temporary effect such as a fireball or increased speed for a time.

Stand Off: A skill that allows the gunslinger to slow down his/her perception of time for exactly 5 seconds, giving them an edge when needed.

Silas stared at the messages in disbelief for a fraction of a second, can the system hear me? He thought in wonder.

But never one to look a gift horse in the mouth Silas turned back to the imps with a smug smile on his face before activating Stand Off.

Time slowed to a crawl and he could see the individual muscle twitches of the imps as they attempted to move, and for once while fighting these things Silas was faster.

He drew his pistol at blinding speeds and blew the lead imps head off before it could even blink, splatter gore onto those behind it.

The second suffered a similar fate, taking a round to the chest and falling down successfully blocking the hallway, now even with standoff, the imps began to adapt. The third one he tried to shoot twisting its body out of the way, dodging the shot and letting one of the imps behind it get hit in the jaw, it died from the shock.

Time began to bleed back toward its previous speed and Silas began to suppress the imps in the hallway, that was until he heard the sound.

Click. Click. Click.

He was out of ammunition. Silas visibly blanched as he reached for his belt to find nothing there. Fuck me I should have been conserving ammo! He thought angrily as he holstered his pistol and drew his bowie knife.

It came out of the sheath with an audible noise, and the imps, no longer faced with a wall of gunfire began to charge down the hall once more. Silas vaulted over his cover to meet them.

He barreled into them, using his greater weight to knock all three into a tangle of limbs on the floor. Silas grinned hungrily as an imp cracked his head on a stalagmite, dying instantly.

Silas engaged in a grappling match for a few seconds with the imp before its high dexterity and agility managed to disarm him, Silas didn't give up though and managed to take the imp's head in his hand and then smashed it against the floor until it was no more than a bloody smear.

Silas rolled off the pile of corpses and rested, breathing heavily as he scanned the cave roof.

I think a figured it out, he thought while cackling madly in his mind, why I so readily accepted the system. I wanted, no I needed a change, a way to gain more power, more strength. And he would be damned if some demon, big or small would take that from him.