Winston made it out of the Blue Fin mines. He had gained his freedom through a lot of bloodshed, which he was not proud of, but he left most of those horrible feelings behind in the mines, as soon he stepped into the coral reef as a free man. After several years of slavery, nothing mattered to him more than the pure sense of freedom that he was feeling right now. He could barely contain his excitement, and equally so, he had a hard time hiding the amped, murderous look in his eyes.
The reef was vast, but to be safe, he avoided the carved buildings that were close to the mines, and started running above the coral. The side above the coral was equal to a mountainside for a guy as small as him, as the coral reef was simply huge!
The coral City of Fik, otherwise known as the city that he lived in, had a unique architecture. It was very developed.
For example there were plenty of buildings, such as houses, market places, and other businesses carved into the coral reef itself, but they were usually at the bottom portions of the reef. Down there, they had stone roads and everything.
The city was a thriving community, housing several species, and thousands of inhabitants. However, in the occasion where the city had to face great threats, such as sharks who were on a feeding frenzy, the buildings of the city were neatly positioned at the bottom portions of the reef, where big, shark noses had it difficult to squeeze in.
Thus, the inhabitants of the city had plenty of time to run into their buildings, and allow the authorities to deal with the giant predators. It was a good system, so good in fact that it allowed the community to prosper for a long time now!
Winston didn't take the safe way into the city. He wanted to avoid all suspicion, he didn't want to look like he just came out of the mine, unsupervised, so he climbed across the top portions of the reef, which was otherwise known as the wilderness around here.
It was dangerous to take this path, sure, but he had a gun now, which made him feel a lot safer. He would need to walk a few hours across the wilderness, and then he'd simply drop somewhere in the middle of the city, and act like a normal citizen. It was the best way to avoid suspicion from anyone that might be watching him.
The wilderness was tough, however, so it took less than half-an-hour for him to run into trouble. A barracuda swam past him, and it was a fatty one, a whole meter long!
Initially the barracuda didn't see him, but Winston couldn't remain stationary for too long, so he couldn't wait the dangers out. He tried to sneak past the barracuda, and that was when it spotted him!
"Die, blue scum!" He shouted, and emptied an entire clip at it.
This wasn't enough to bring the beast down for good, especially since the bullets simply sunk half-an-inch into its skin, but he did manage to hurt it enough to scare it off. The barracuda swam away, but he knew that it would come back, so he squeezed through a tiny hole in the coral, so as to avoid being detected during the second round of the attack.
"Maybe I can snipe the bastard down? One sneaky clip at a time…" He plotted.
[You can't afford to lose that much mana. You're down to 340 points already.]
"So?" He said. "That's like 40 clips."
[Well, your math isn't far off, but it's best if you don't waste several clips fighting a single creature. As of now, 40 system points remain in your sum, so if you insist on fighting that barracuda, it's best if you spend some system points upgrading the 9mm Starfish Destroyer.]
"Upgrading?" He repeated. "I heard about that before. The guards used to boast about upgrading, or improving their guns. Heh, too bad their big, shiny rifles didn't do them much good today."
Weapons Magic was a craft that was practiced by many. Every mage could upgrade their weapons, and create new ones as well, but Winston had an advantage over all of those mages. He could develop his guns a lot faster in comparison!
A system tab popped up in front of his eyes. He saw the blueprint of the 9mm Starfish Destroyer there, and with a few words, the system explained that he could upgrade any aspect of his pistol that he wanted, except, it would cost him plenty of system points.
He thought, "I better make this count, because I only have forty system points left."
The statistics of the pistol were aside the blueprint, and after he read through them a few times, he understood what his pistol lacked. It's accuray, for example, could be a lot better. It was the lowest statistic of all, rated at 5/10 points.
Winston clicked on the upgrade button along the Accuracy statistic, and within seconds, he upgraded it by a single point. It cost him twenty system points to upgrade it, so it was a bit expensive.
The magazine could also be better, as it could only fit eight bullets right now, but he didn't want to spend his remaining system points on that. He focused on the damage that his gun could do, which was currently rated at two-hundred points per shot.
"Two-hundred points sounds like a lot, it's perfect for killing starfish, hell, the darn thing is even named after starfish, but it's not enough to take a barracuda down now, is it?" He spoke to himself.
Afterwards, he spent his remaining twenty system points to increase its Damage statistic. His mind was made up.
The Damage statistic went up by a hundred points, which he felt quite satisfied with. Such damage can possibly blow a starfish's arm off, but in his current predicament, it might be enough to punch a painful hole in that fat barracuda! He was satisfied with the new statistics.
[Damage = 300 Points
Range = 20 Meters
Mobility = 8/10 Points
Accuracy = 6/10 Points
Magazine = 8 Bullets - 9mm]
"Good," He nodded. "Now let's see what this 9mm bastard is now!"