Ricky was really trying his best to relax he really was, sure that may have been the 15th time he did maintenance on his revolver and sure the last set of clothes probably would have worked even though it had a belt strap just asking to be grabbed by some sort of monstrosity…
OK FINE, he could admit to himself if no one else that he was doing a horrible job relaxing but who could blame him?! This was the day that every person with any sort of system access both dreaded and dreamed of, the day when one can stand up and truly join society, or you know die a horrible agonizing death but that won’t happen to Ricky gunslinger extraordinaire HAHA of course not. After all, Ricky did have the most skills out of anyone he knew at a whopping 20. Still, what really made Ricky proud was that he was able to resist the worst of the temptations to look at the timer that was currently at…
TRIAL COMMENCING IN 15 SECONDS PREPARING TELEPORT
Gosh darn it OH SYSTEM DID HE RELOAD HIS GU-
...
The space that Ricky found himself in was unfamiliar a cave brightly lit with lamps of all different shades and colors the safe zone looked almost exactly as Ricky always imagined it would. Something was slightly different than how he always pictured it though Ricky expected the system teleportation to be more abrupt than it was, he heard stories from some of his richer friends about how terrible normal teleportation was, and everyone heard the stories of the people who accidentally got fused with other creatures or items, Ricky had nightmares about those for most of his childhood. The teleportation he experienced here was different though all he felt was a slight jolt and even that was only because he was paying attention. Truly the system was as usual absolutely unmatched, speaking of from what he remembered trial goers only had a limited amount of time in the safe zone he should probably get to his skill setup. Ricky's hands were lightning quick as he picked the skills he would be using, he already spent days agonizing over this decision but Ricky was sure he came up with a strategy that should work well enough.
Class Gunslinger Level 5 Dexterity +5 Luck +2 Perception +8 Ability: 6 In the chamber Current Loadout 1. Instant Regret 2. Sticky Bullet 3. One shot saves bullets 4. Trickshots 5. Smoke Screen 6. Replay
Right away the first of his abilities activated
Ability Used Instant Regret
firing conditions this must be your first bullet
Misfire conditions having this bullet equipped in any other slot or having all other bullets match the ones given by the effect
Effect gives a recommended loadout for the area you are in
Recommended Loadout
starting bullet Quick to shoot
2. Monkey See Monkey Shoot
3. Ignition Bullet
4. Ringing Bullet
5. Power shot
Final Bullet felling a giant
Congratulations as none of your bullets match the recommended loadout you have gained EXPERIENCE
Current skill Sticky Bullet
ok well, that could be worse the recommended bullets seem to show that there is going to be some sort of big boss monster for this layer of the trial that was far better for Ricky's skill set than if there would be a hoard of smaller monsters. Felling a Giant was Ricky's most powerful skill but it did have the caveat that to use it every single other skill in the loadout had to be used on the enemy you want to target.
Ricky felt the usual sense of triumph that he was able to use that stupid instant regret ability getting it had probably been one of the worst moments of his life and its seemingly useless effect taunted him until he realized just how useful information can be (even if it is only what you should do next time). With that done Ricky finally answered the nagging doubt in the back of his mind yes he did reload his gun his knife was still in his holster and he had enough rations to last at least 3 days, everything was ready. With one last look of wonder at the safe area, Ricky exited the cave and immediately started to drown.
...
Or at least he thought he did water rushed into his lungs and he could tell he should be unable to breathe but he was still alive. More system weirdness, the water despite not hindering his breathing somehow still was heavy his movements while still faster than someone without a dexterity boost were far slower than he was used to. Ricky did his best to stay vigilant the 1st tutorial is supposed to be the smallest one but he saw no walls the ocean he was standing in went as far as his eyes could see at this point Ricky received another system message.
Stolen story; please report.
WELCOME PLAYER TO YOUR FIRST TRIAL. The system gives many boons and allows people's base attributes to become superhuman all that it asks in return is that you properly EXPLORE your abilities. The first trial is if you when alone and stranded have the necessary spirit to discover more about the world and yourself. You are currently an explorer who is searching for the pirate king's map of the great sea unfortunately due to poor planning and just being generally the worst you only have 2 hours left in your water-breathing potion.
Ricky did a double take on being described as generally the worst but as he stared at the screen a timer started to count down from 2 hours in flashing red. Ricky decided it was probably time to start moving. The sea floor was mostly barren but Ricky could have sworn he could see movement out of the corner of his eyes there was a bunch of gray and lifeless coral swaying with the currents but besides that, there were no landmarks for Ricky to use. Not wanting to get lost Ricky decided just to walk in a straight line hopefully he'll either find the treasure map or at least one of the walls of this place.
After about a half hour of walking all the while looking worriedly at the timer in his notifications, Ricky suddenly felt something pierce his leg. SHOOT (in any other situation Ricky would laugh at the unintentional pun) he stopped paying attention, Ricky instinctively kicked his leg out dislodging some sort of small sharklike humanoid wasting no time Ricky took his gun and shot the creature in the leg activating his second bullet a green substance sprung from the wound and quickly the shark caught in place. the creature struggled, squirming in place before it stopped suddenly a hint of cunning in its eyes as it stared at Ricky. Ricky stared at it normally he would just shoot the dang thing until it was dead but right now that wasn't an option pulling out his knife Ricky slowly approached the creature that was standing deceptively still its pale skin almost fading from his sight. Suddenly it pounced as far as it could it took all of Ricky's concentration to barely intercept the creature's jaws as it chomped on his knife it only had a second to realize that Ricky's other hand the one holding his revolver was slowly being raised to the creatures head Ricky took the shot. There was an explosion of viscera and Ricky dropped butt-first into the sand.
He quickly checked himself over, besides a pretty nasty scar on his leg he'd probably get out of this fine though Ricky did not trust himself to start running anytime soon. " Ok I did it I'm alive that wasn't so bad was it you did great and that's not just the blood loss talking". Ricky muttered to himself as he slowly looked around it seemed that the creature jumped out of a slightly larger-than-average coral he really should have known better. Ricky opened up his notifications now that the fight was over.
Ability Used Sticky Bullet
Firing Conditions fire a gun
Missfire conditions if your bullet is destroyed without hitting anything you can’t remake your loadout until you trap 20 insects
Effect makes a bullet explode on contact with a surface with a hard-to-escape substance
Current Ability one shot saves bullets
Ability used One shot saves bullets
Firing conditions must kill another creature with a gun
Misfire conditions if you shoot an opponent nonlethally while this bullet is equipped your gun explodes and you can’t reset your bullet loadout until you kill 6 living creatures
Effect Gain a bullet based on the creature you killed
Current Skill Trickshots
NEW BULLET GAINED steady breathing
Firing Conditions be used as your starting bullet try to hold your breath
Missfire conditions if you put this bullet in any other slot or spend a week having this equipped without using its effect, you are unable to breathe until you faint
Effect you can hold your breath for an hour
The new bullet was nice though completely useless to him right now still though he now had 21 abilities Ricky lazily raised a fist in triumph before reloading his gun. Slowly picking himself up Ricky continued down the path he was going limping as he went along. This time he made sure to be much more vigilant but no more of the creatures appeared at the timer was at a worrying 10 minutes left before he found a cave this had better be it.
Floating out of the cave was a humongous creature that resembled a narwhal in appearance the creature was three times as big as Ricky and it was covered in metal spikes and blades its horn looked particularly nasty and it was spinning at an incredibly fast rate. The creature saw Ricky and charged at him panicked Ricky fired 4 shots at the ground they bounced off the sand unnaturally hitting the creature who for its part did not seem to notice at all panicking now Ricky shot another bullet which should have produced a smokescreen instead a bunch of grey bubbles popped out The creature opened it's mouth wide as Ricky continued to shoot it with his remaining bullets before being swallowed whole.
....
Ability Used Trickshots
Firing conditions fire 4 bullets from a gun within 20 seconds
Misfire conditions if you fire less than 4 bullets in 20 seconds your bullets become made of rubber and you can’t reset your bullet loadout until you shoot an apple on someone's head from an appreciable distance
Effect your bullets ricochet unnaturally very slight course correction towards enemies
Current Skill Smoke screen
Ability Used Smoke Screen
Firing Conditions fire a bullet at the ground
Missfire Conditions if you fire this bullet before being noticed you can’t reset your loadout until you sneak past 20 people
Effect Summons smoke that aids in evading all types of detection
Current Skill Replay
Ability Used Replay
firing conditions this must be the last bullet you have equipped die from a sentient creature that is not you within 1 hour of equipping
Missfire conditions if you live past an hour with this bullet equipped then you die with no way of being revived
Effect go back in time to when you first set your loadout and pick different bullets you can not repeat bullets. Additionally, you can not gain new bullets until you pass the point in time in which this bullet activated in the previous timeline you can only use this ability once per week