An enormous hole was torn into the panther's shoulder from the .50 caliber round that Devon fired, but beasts in this new world were made of tougher stuff than back on earth. The panther was grievously wounded, but not dead yet.
A clap of thunder descended as the black panther pounced towards Devon once again.
*Bang*
A second round blasted into the moonlit night, its sound drowned out by the torrent of rain and thunder that seemed to wax and wane by the second. This time, it merely grazed the panther's fur. Five bullets left.
The panther seemed to have realized that diving straight for Devon was not the wisest choice. Its glowing cat eyes scanned the cavern entrance before fixing on a certain beautiful and tan amazonian tribal healer lying unconscious a few paces away from Devon. A defenseless target.
Without another ounce of hesitation, it pounced at Vesta's unconscious body.
Devon realized the panther's intentions when it shifted its gaze away from him to the unconscious female healer. Seeing the panther charge at her with intent to kill, his protective instincts instantly flared up.
"Nobody touches my woman!" Devon muttered loudly, raising his silver pistol up again.
His hands felt a bit numbed from the sheer recoil that his newly bought pistol wrought with the previous two shots, but he steeled his nerves for a third time as the panther's claws closed in on Vesta.
*Bang*
A direct hit, right through the neck of the oversized panther. It fell down limp, that last bullet killing him immediately. Four bullets left.
[You have slain a Common Panther]
[You have gained experience]
Devon scanned the environment for any more threats, before finally taking a deep breath. This whole situation was so ridiculous. In a world of magic and swords, he ended up using a sex shop bought gun to kill a beast?
In the end, the pistol was far ahead in terms of destructive power when compared to his wind magic or his swordsmanship, both of which were still quite lacking. While Devon held the strongest shield possible in the form of [Dead Man Walking], his offensive capabilities were rather mediocre. Except for in the fight against the Behemoth, but that fight was unique.
In virtually every fight, due to the impenetrable defensive nature of his passive, he could never lose. His offensive capabilities didn't need to be so great because he was in possession of the universe's strongest defensive skill.
But what if beasts targeted the ones around him? His women? The ones he cared about?
Suddenly, offensive capability became a lot more important. For now, Devon would use the crutch of his old-world technology firearms. But in the future, he really needed to expand his offensive capabilities.
Agh…
*Ding*
In his musings, he totally forgot about the slew of new notifications he'd just received. This was seriously weird. He had some game-like system elements in the past, but now he was actually getting notifications for kills? What the hell?
Anyway, it was better to just open up those notifications and get to the bottom of this mystery rather than muse upon it any longer.
Huh?
The first thing that struck him was that he now had an option to open up his status screen.
Without further ado, he pressed that option.
[Devon Hall]
Race: Human (Immortal) (Awakened)
Budding Immortal
Level: 0
Strength: Nonexistent
Agility: Nonexistent
Endurance: Nonexistent
Constitution: Somewhat Weak
Magic: Nonexistent
Perception: Nonexistent
Lust: Strong
Devon nearly gagged when he read his status screen. Every single one of his stats, with the exception of constitution and lust, was at the nonexistent rating. Constitution was the sole normal exception, sitting at a glamorous 'somewhat weak' rating. And then there was lust… apparently that was the only stat that he scored above average, sitting at a 'strong' rating.
Devon couldn't make heads or tails of this evaluation aside from the fact that it seemed to be some divine mockery of his achievements in this world so far. His lengthy list of achievements being getting killed multiple times and penetrating as many hot bitches as he could get his hands on.
But that wasn't the end of his notifications.
[Unique Abilities registered]
[Dead Man Walking]
[Blessing of the Witch]
Devon wasn't an idiot. Although he was cripplingly depressed during purgatory, he was still cognizant of the choices he made there. From what he had encountered so far, he already had a hunch that it was statistically impossible for these two abilities to be the only ones that he received from his "give me anything or nothing, I don't care" reincarnator roulette spin.
So how come they weren't registering with the system?
…
Perhaps he needed to unlock his potential on his own, just like when he unlocked [Blessing of the Witch].
He also realized the reason why this system showed up just now. It definitely had something to do with his romp in the sack with Vesta. Maybe that act of depravity was what pushed his lust stat to the 'strong' rating, and what caused him to be a human with not only the (immortal) tag from his passive, but also the (awakened) tag.
But my god, why did he have to start at level 0…
Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. From what he knew from video games, the lower the level, the easier it was for him to level up. And with levels, came power. Offensive power, hopefully.
Devon smiled greedily as he bounced a silver pistol in his hand.