"Amazing. Quite simply amazing. A whole world of technological wonders. I would have loved to see it."
"Oh, you poor darling. Come here and let your dear William comfort you." Visible cringe from Henry.
"Quite a story, kid. If not for Froggy here, I would not even believe a word you just said."
"Yes, quite a story, Sergei. I cannot imagine a world where science triumphed over faith. And your God? I think he is not worthy of your worship. But then, my Gods saved me at the time of my need and gifted me with power to save others."
"Such a tragic tale, Mister Jones. To lose the woman you when your life is still ahead of you. Still, life must go on. And you gave Miss Marcella quite a scare when you fainted in front of her."
"Marcella?"
"Yes, Henry my boy. Her name is Marcella Whitmore. She is my apprentice and works here in my clinic."
"Marcella... she even has the same name. How could this be? I.... I.... It's.... Impossible...." Henry mutters to himself. It was still edible to the other people, however.
"Yeah, kid. Macey's a nice kid. A bit of an imp sometimes but all in good fun." Sergei answers. "She might be you girl's ancestor or something."
"Macey... even the nickname's the same." Henry sighs. "It's just... I don't know if I talk to her or not."
Doc replies "You are the only one who has the answer to that question."
"Yeah, yeah... you're right. Thanks, Doc."
Sergei shouts, interrupting the somber mood "Bah... bunch of crybabies." He continues. "Let's get to the meat of things. Questions... I'm sure you guys have questions. Cause I sure do. And you kid, I think you got lot of questions, too."
Henry answers "Right... almost forgot about. Answers first, existential crisis later."
"See..."
Doc interjects "So, Henry my boy, are you up to answering some of our questions? We are willing to answer your questions too?"
"Yes. Knowledge must be shared. Ulum's gift must never be squandered." Uk'rum pipes in.
"Yeah,Let's get this over with." He answers. "Okay. First off, who are you guys? It's not like there is group of of people running around in the middle of the night? People that are quite prepared in dealing with things that go bump in the night."
Doc replies "A good question. Yes, you might find it quite unusual yes. We are members of the "Gentlemen Society for Archeological and Historical Research and Preservation, London Chapter". Officially, the society we're part in are involved in conducting archeological and historical research. Unofficially, the society is a government-affiliated organization that conducts research into the supernatural and occult. This covers from collecting information and data about supernatural beings and phenomena, to fighting the forces that try to destroy or enslave humans and other beings that live on Earth. That includes fighting monsters, like the Vranitch you encountered yesterday."
"He means we fight big bad monsters."
"A crude analogy Micalov, but yes. Our group here is a more combat-oriented one. We are equipped with fighting malevolent otherworldly forces than conducting research or inventing new items. The society has combat team, like us, scattered London and the surrounding suburbs. There are also combat teams spread across the entire country, and also in the colonies of the Great British Empire. The Society also has research and invention-focused teams. They are fewer than the combat teams and they are mostly stationed in or near the universities, private laboratories, museums and government offices. Though we sometimes also conduct field research, mostly with researchers from the Society headquarters accompanying us."
"You see... most of the supernatural beings you find in folklore and fairy tale? They exists. Vampires. Dragons. Ghosts and spirits. The only monster we have proven NOT to exist in any shape or form is the boogeyman. But the others? They might be quite different from the stories, but they DO exist."
"Like the Vranitch, for example. Take the legend of the banshee, turn its wail into a soul-searing howl, mix with a little soul-sucking, then dash it with a bit of weakness to sunlight. And the one you've encountered last night... it's a juvenile. No longer young, but not an adult yet. And that means it's very hungry. It can devour a soul each night until it has fully matured. That is why we hunt it, to prevent more deaths and the loss of souls.
Uk'rum speaks up, "The loss of a soul is a very painful to Ulum and Muna. And someone who feasts on it, an Anathema. This... is the reason why I am here, fighting with these good people. My faith compels me... to fight against those cause suffering and death."
"Me? I just like fighting them. Helping others and the pay are just bonus." Sergei says.
"Cleaning up monsters is a reward in itself. Plus it lets me show off my talents." William proudly exclaims.
"I have seen the horrors that they bring. I have experienced it myself. This is why I serve Sahib. As he has saved me and my tribe, I shall save others." Sahib answers.
Doc speaks "Each and every one of us has experienced the cruelty and malevolence some of the otherworldly beings possess. It is their nature, their entire being. And we are all been scarred by our first encounters with. In doing so, each of has unlocked abilities that is unique to each."
"Myself, for example. I have the ability to assess the condition of a person's condition by touch and sight. The better I can feel and inspect a person's body, the easier I can deduce the person's physical, mental and spiritual health. From physical damage like miniature bone fractures, mental maladies, to even possession. I gained it when I was possessed by a Leire'in, a monster that takes over a person's body while slowly devouring that person's soul. I was quite lucky... Uk'rum here easily Saw my predicament and banished the monster from me."
"My servant and close confidant, Pradesh. He has strength of twenty men, yet the muscular control of a circus performer. From touching the most delicate of objects, to lifting and hurling huge boulders weighing almost a ton. And his powers are natural to him. He is what others called a half-breed, a child of a supernatural being and a normal human. In this case, his father is a hill giant. His father is a kind and gentle soul, defending the tribe from other monsters. He even serves as a constabulary in his hometown."
"Sergei here has the ability track anyone, as long as he has contact with that being's personal possession. Any item that has personal or sentimental value to, he can use it to track down the owner. And he is a trained hunter and tracker, too."
"As to William, he has an uncanny ability to learn any form martial he witnesses. He's an excellent weapons master and even better at unarmed combat techniques. He even trained with several Eastern combat masters and learned their techniques. He can also predict the weak spots of any enemy."
"And Uk'rum? Unlike us, his abilities are gifted to him by his benefactors. Ulum, the god of the sun, knowledge and light. And Muna, the goddess of the moon, healing and purification. His gifts are his Sight, which allows him to See the truth in things. No illusions, no shape-change, no lies. Very few things can hide from his Sight. He's also very capable in healing combat damage and diseases. And he's well verse in banishing monsters back to the Beyond."
"The Beyond?" Henry asks.
Doc replies "Right, the Beyond. How should I describe it? Hmmm.... Imagine a... place... that is separate yet linked to Earth. It is quite vast; scholars believe that the Beyond covers an area more than a million times larger than the total surface area of the Earth. It even has different layers, like the pages of a book. Ukrum here lives on planet inside one of those layers of the Beyond. Other scholars suggests that Earth itself is part of the Beyond. The only thing that refutes that theory is that it is only Earth that has the connections to all of the layers of the Beyond. Earth is the nexus, the center-point of the Beyond."
"And there is even a place beyond the Beyond, if you can imagine it. A place of darkness. A place of pure malevolence and evil. A place where all things come to an end. Uk'rum's people, Xen'dot'ia, calls it the Far End. Others call it the Creeping Dark. We call it... the Abyss." Henry felt a faint familiarity with that term. "Every malevolent creature, every evil spirit... they all came from the Abyss. Anything that came from that accursed place causes nothing but misery and destruction."
"And their purpose? To plunge everything to the Abyss."
"We do not know how they will achieve this. And we do not care. We will stop them. This is why we are here. This is why the Society exists. To prevent the Abyss from engulfing everything."
========================================
After The Meeting:
"Well... that was a.... What. The. Fucking. Hell. Did I get myself into?" Henry laments "Fucking... AAAAAAAAAGH!!!
Henry rants... and raves... and curses...
He was spent; out of energy and spirit flagging.
"Okay... Henry... calm down.... Nothing... can be done... if we just... rant and rave... here...."
"Need a plan... Need allies... No, minions... yes minions... much better...."
Henry rummages through his items, finding his smartphone.
Well, it was not Henry who found the phone. It was Uk'rum, who was scouring the area during the clean-up. While removing the traces of the supernatural on the scene, he found the phone in a secluded spot between 2 trash bins. Good thing he showed it Henry afterwards.
And Henry spent all his Upgrade Points on improving it, as a demonstration to the other guys at the meeting. It was a bit battered when Uk'rum found it. He even put a self-charging enchant on it.
"Gonna make a list. So, what do we know."
"First...."
<'Status Sheet'.>
'PING!'
[STATUS SHEET:]
[NAME: Henry Jones.]
[AGE: 33]
[GENDER: Male]
[BLOODLINE: Human]
[TITLES: N/A]
[HP: 140/140]
[UPGRADE POINTS: 0/12]
[ATTRIBUTES:]
[STR: 16(+)]
[CON: 14(+)]
[SPD: 12(+)]
[DEX: 18(+)]
[INT: 18(+)]
[WILL: 15(+)]
[CHA: 16(+)]
[PER: 13(+)]
[SPI: 12(+)]
[LUK: 10]
[BONUS:]
[DEF: 1]
[DEBUFF: N/A]
"Only thing that good I got from that monster, is that it unlocked my SPI Attribute. Now... I can enchantments. Just gonna need lots of Upgrade Points, or the 'Enchant Altar'."
"Oh yeah, let's check out my 'Skills'. Almost forgot about it."
<'Skills'.>
'PING!'
[SKILLS:]
[MELEE:]
[UNARMED: 3 (9/10000)]
[BASHING: 1 (0/100)]
[CUTTING: 1 (0/100)]
[PIERCING: 1 (0/100)]
[RANGED:]
[MARKSMANSHIP: 2 (0/1000)]
[HANDGUNS: 2 (0/1000)]
[RIFLES: 1 (0/100)]
[SHOTGUNS: 1 (0/100)]
[SMG: 0 (0/10)]
[LAUNCHERS: 1 (0/100)]
[ARCHERY: 2 (0/1000)]
[THROWN: 2 (0/1000)]
[FABRICATION: 4 (11/100000)]
[METALWORK: 3 (0/10000)]
[TAILOR: 1 (6/100)]
[MECHANICS: 4 (0/100000)]
[ELECTRONICS: 4 (5/100000)]
[CHEMISTRY: 4 (0/100000)]
[MEDICINE: 2 (220/1000)]
[COOKING: 3 (0/10000)]
[SURVIVAL: 2 (13/1000)]
[TRAPS: 1 (5/100)]
[ATHLETICS: 4 (57/100000)]
[ARCANA: 0 (5/10)]
[ANALYZE: MAX]
"Hmm... so. What I learned, so far, is that 'Skills' are based on a rank from zero(0) to ten(10). A score of 0 means I have no capability in that skill whatsoever. And 10 is the highest level achievable, for ordinary humans anyway. Even peak humans are limited to this.
"Also most of them are self-explanatory. My 'Unarmed' is at rank 3. I have self-defense training, mostly boxing and aikido. The other "Melee" are maybe to the fact I use those types of items everyday."
"'Ranged'... I've trained for firearms certification. Highly recommended due to me working in a firearms plant. Mostly pistol training but I get to try some rifles and shotguns. And 'Archery' because I went with Macey sometimes when she goes bow-hunting with her uncle. I still practice from time to time, just maintaining my form."
"Good times. Macey.... I still miss you."
Sigh. "'Fabrication' is a catch-all for almost all handcrafting and machine crafting skills that I have. 'Metalworking' because I use a forge quite a lot, especially when making custom parts. 'Tailor' from patching up my clothes."
"'Mechanics' for fixing and maintaining all those complicated machinery in the plant. 'Electronics', the same with 'Mechanics'. 'Chemistry', due to me having a chemistry license, perhaps. I also do my own QC checks on all chemicals used in the plant."
"'Medicine' for having basic and advanced first aid training. Triage, CPR, bandaging.... Even made some homemade remedies I learned from Macey."
"'Cooking'? Well, being a bachelor forces you to make your own meals."
"'Survival' from coming with Macey and his dad to their hunting trips. 'Traps', the same too."
"Athletics due to me having a great physique due to exercise. I never miss my early morning jog and weekend gym, if I have schedule conflicts."
"And 'Arcana'. Well, it seems to cover the magical aspect of my power. I can't cast spells, but I can enchant items to cast spells for me. That might be into the far future, I think."
Henry takes a pause, tapping away at his phone. Making notes on a smartphone is no easy task.
"I can also use my 'Analyze' ability on other people. I got some blueprints for crafting and enchanting from them. Although my 'Arcana' skill is quite low now, I can advance it further in the future.
"And I can't use my 'Upgrade Points' to increase my skill levels. I can only increase by doing certain actions, like crafting items for my crafting skills. 'Arcana' increased due to me upgrading my phone. And look at the thresholds. How am I gonna reach those amounts. It could take me decades if the 'power of 10' per level formulation holds true. At least I'm getting some progress on some of them."
"I also need to get up my workshop running. Doc offered me a job with them and a place in the Society's rosters. It's nice, but I don't really know if I can completely trust them."
Henry decides on a course of actions.
"Let's do a scavenging run first. Gonna need materials... lots of materials. And access to tools; vise, lathe, drills.... Plus chemicals and reagents. And lab equipment."
Henry sighs, realizing the massive undertaking he has to go through.
"That's... that' gonna a lot of work to do. Still... it needs to be done. No hardware stores or hobbyist shops to buy this stuff. Even if there are, I have no local currency to buy them."
"Pack rat it is then."