Throne of Steam

A dark room stood out among others in the Cathedral, the position at the end of a corridor with wide doors elicited its importance.

On the inside, a wide collection of filled pots and dusted books crowded the cracked shelves, and a few tables littered the middle, serving for a commodity as one studies the multitude of secrets there hidden.

That's interesting... Garett was regarded as a scholar by many of his peers, and he listened to the clarifications provided by the clergyman with avid attention. The hunter in question was an old, short, man; his heigh barely reached Garett's chest, but the sparks of wisdom shining in his eyes were evident.

The short old man didn't divulge his name, preferring to be called 'Librarian' or 'Keeper'; for one to be cleared for the battlefield, it was necessary to have the Kepper's approval in occult knowledge.

That didn't mean that every hunter was a specialist in this regard, and many just barely attained the minimum requirements set by the elder. The requirements were very simple, and, in fact, Garett had already met most of them in his unstoppable longing for new knowledge.

As this was his first-class, the librarian was explaining the pertaining knowledge relating to rituals. His dry voice sounded a little uncomfortable on the ears, but Garett wasn't one to mind this kind of thing.

"Every entity living in the spiritual world can be the target of a ritual, and each one of them responds to it in their own fashion, but that's unimportant, and all I'll say about that is that its dangerous to offer ritual to an unknown entity." The man carefully enunciated the last few words, putting extreme emphasis on it. One of the Keeper duties was to instill this concept on the minds of new recruits. "As for our seminary today, we are going to focus on the more... orthodox spirit figures, in other words, we are going to focus on the Gods. More specifically, the Goddess."

"It's important to take note that one's body is not strong enough to contain the powers of a ritual, and there are a few ways to remedy that. Training, of course, is the most common one; the second one being the consumption of elixirs, mystical herbs, and the flesh of mutants; as for the third and final one, its the rare instance on which the spiritual entity itself will accommodate the powers to one's body. Only, the powers will be very weak and taxing in that case, until the body grows in strength." The Librarian lectured with his eyes half-closed, his voice reverberating throughout the eerie atmosphere of the damp room. "One's body can accommodate the powers of various rituals, but only if the body can withstand it. There's also the side requirement of the powers being compatible with one another."

That means that my powers are weak because my body is weak? Does that put me in this special kind of marked? So my powers will strengthen if I increase my body's strength... Garett realized as he attentively listened, his body perking forward in a show of earnestness.

"Powers being compatible... I don't remember Dante's team having powers related to other domains." He remarked, trying to fish for information on the possibility of multiple rituals.

"Oh, yes, you fought beside them. Just because they don't have powers related to other domains, it doesn't mean they hold only one ritual. Dante, for instance, held three rituals; it's just that every single one of them was made toward the Goddess." The Librarian replied as he walked to a bookshelf on the side, his speed almost slowing to a crawl, as his old body and short stature limited him.

Dante held three rituals? One of them for his powers of constriction, another for his powers of interrogation that almost made me reveal things. That leaves the third one, did he employ it yesterday? I wonder what it is... Garett mused about the various possibilities as his mind drifted.

Are the goddess powers compatible with those from the old book? I wonder what makes a power compatible with another... This problem was weighing on his mind for quite some time now! If he joined the hunters, he would have eventually to hold a ritual to the goddess! What if something adverse happened because of the old book? He needed to understand better the ins and outs of ritualistic bestowment.

"Sir Librarian, is it possible for someone from our church to also gain powers from, let's say, the Lord Judge? If I first hold a ritual to the Goddess and later to other entities, how do I know one power is compatible with others?" Garett pressed, trying to hide his true motives as a novice who is eager to collect power from the most distinct sources!

Yes, that should lower his guard! It would be for the best if he dismissed me as a stupid recruit with too great of an ambition... Garett inwardly praised himself for coming up with this outstanding move, his soul glistened with pride.

"It's better if you abandon these thoughts, young man. The entities can usually feel the mark of another when answering a ritual, and as such, many of the gods avoid bestowing powers to someone marked by another." He then seemed to remember something, as he added a caveat just as he finished the first part. "The exception being the Divine Artisan and the God of Knowledge, as both of them are neutral to all other deities. It's not unheard of a hunter acquiring the powers of an executor, but the cases are very rare as the person in question had very deep ties to both churches."

Does that mean I can only hope the book's entity is compatible with the Goddess? Neither the powers of the Goddess or those of the Holy Judge detected the book, so it's possible it can hide during a ritual as well... Garett could only hope his conjectures were right, as it would be very troublesome otherwise! The powers bestowed by the old book were very simple, but if you counted in the ability to absorb a mutant's essence, it would shock the whole world!

"Here, found it." The old man enunciated as he grabbed a book from the hardwood shelf, the cover was made from a distinguished black leather that Garett had no hopes of identifying.

"This is the compendium of artifacts, every Hunter is bestowed a C-Ranked artifact upon finishing training, and you can study these for reference." The old man sat again in a small bench near the tables, his head barely visible over them. "Now you can leave, you still have physical training to do, and now you also understand better the need for physical training."

"Yes, sir..." Garett bowed in a show of respect, as it was customary to do when leaving the presence of one's teacher. "I'll be returning tomorrow."

"Go on, don't bother me. You young hunters always forget about me after completing your training, no need to be so courteous." the old man shook his head as he started to fiddle with a few bottles containing all kinds of weird liquids, and not minding Garett's presence anymore.

That's pretty rude. You taught every single one of them after all... Garett grimaced for the old man, as that was usually the destiny of the old, to be eventually replaced by the new.

...

"How was it, Garett? Have you met the old Keeper? He's a strange fellow, I remember he was pretty strict with me when I was a recruit." Alice's merry voice stood out as he arrived at the shooting range, apparently, she was in charge of the range.

"Hello, Alice. I've met him, and he's very knowledgeable, I've learned a lot." Garett nodded, not bothering to hide his preferences to the theoric lessons over the physical training.

"Oh, you're one of those, right? The captain was also like this, always cooped up in the library, talking to the old keeper all day long." She spat while reminiscing, her voice drifting in some old memory.

"Captain was?... I guess that suits him, but I don't plan on staying at the library all day long." While Garett loved to amass a great amount of knowledge, he also wanted to strengthen his powers quickly! And physical training was the way to do that.

"That's good, I usually avoid that place. In fact, most hunters do, as the old keeper's personality can be a little... exotic." She scoured for words to describe the librarian, eventually deciding to settle for that. "But less chatting, while I'm your supervisor today, don't expect me to go easy on you."

"Hah..." He sighed helplessly, a wave of exhaustion already washing over him, even before starting!

...

The training occupied his whole afternoon and left his clothes soaking wet. Each breath felt like a deep knife cutting into the insides of his lungs! While sitting at the side, Alice laughed at his weakness.

Even if I can make use of Vellen's experience, my body is still not used to this! I can remember exactly how he felt... Garett felt his eyes moisten, he could clearly remember the pain Vellen felt during his training, and now he would live through that too!

"I-I'm not used to exercising like this, every single cell in my body is screaming in pain..." He used practically his whole strength to announce those words

"You know, you were pretty good at the shooting range, It even made me suspect if you had already trained before. But well... your performance on the rest washed away my doubts. Hahaha~" She chirped while looking down on him, her red hair slightly swaying with the breeze.

That's because the rest of the training was just about me running around with weighs! Were you trying to kill me!? I guess at least she isn't suspecting me anymore... He grumbled internally while trying to compose himself, the deep breaths slowly allowing him to recoup him his strength.

"Oh, I almost forgot, there's an occurrence for recruits to investigate." She said without waiting for his recovery. "It's nothing involving mutants, you can rest assured. We only want the recruit to practice their investigative skills, as they are sometimes needed."

"What do you want me to investigate?" He closed his eyes to rest while she apprised him on the specifics of the investigation.

"Oh, it's pretty simple, we just don't want to waste manpower on it, so we're making recruits do it; a firearm was fired yesterday near the market district, four drunkards were attacked by an unknown aggressor; actually, wouldn't you happen to know something about it, right? You went in that direction after we parted." She inquired, not really hoping to obtain an answer.

If I would know!? I was the mysterious 'attacker'! But it so happens that the one attacked was me!... Garett felt incredulous at the sudden development, his eyes bursting open while he looked for words to try explaining the situation.