Throne of Steam

"These are the records on the supernatural activity in the area around Tobacco Yard." Alice didn't even wait for Garett to recover from the hellish training before she dropped a thick file on a nearby table. "There are twenty-three recorded cases during the last month, with only four of them being of unknown cause."

Twenty-three? That's a very high quantity for only one district, no? I mean, I don't know the average number of cases in other areas... Garett breathed in calmy while listening to the specifics. He refused to get up for the time being!

"Twenty-three seems like a very high number, Alice..." Garett limply remarked, letting his thoughts be known.

"The average number of occurrences per district is around twenty-two a month. So yes, Tobacco Yard has a very high number this month, and as the month is not over, we expect more cases. Topping up at around twenty-seven cases." Alice tensely acknowledged, her face expressing the gravity of the circumstances. "Every case dealt by the curch is recorded and attributed a cause, the most common being the presence of marked."

"That means there are other things that can attract supernatural phenomena?" Garett questioned her choice of words.

"Yes, even if it's not common, there are other circumstances. There are cases where Marked attempt rituals behind the church's backs, being possessed by some unknown entity in the process." Alice started to list a few causes that she had previous experience with. "There were also cases in which an inexperienced artisan forged an artifact that could connect directly to the spiritual world, resulting in chaos, and we needed a full team of hunters to destroy the artifact."

A full team of hunters!? Isn't that as dangerous as a B-rank Mutant!? And you want to investigate things like those... Garett felt his confidence crumbling into pieces as he listened to the huntress's experiences.

"Don't look at me like that. It was a special case, only happening once or twice in the last couple of years." Alice recomforted the young recruit, hoping to lessen his worries.

It seems very frequent for me! Are you sure you should not send an entire team of experienced hunters to investigate?... Garett was having bad premonitions. He was almost a hundred percent sure the situation would not be so simple as an unmonitored marked!

"May the Goddess protect me..." He mumbled in desperate prayer, his previous confidence vanishing. He almost wanted to punch himself for being so positive in front of the captain.

"May the Goddess bless us all." Alice echoed in sequence, almost like an instinctive reflex!

You're not helping, Alice... Garett felt his lips twitching.

"Anyway, you should study the area and prepare for any circumstances." Alice stopped for a second before adding in a reminder. "You can request money for your expenditures from the church, and you can also request a weapon... just in case."

Just in case, huh... Garett felt more and more that he would meet with trouble in this assignment.

...

Garett knocked at the large doors of the Keeper's library, finally having finished his training and possessing some free time, Garett decided to visit the old Keeper and continue to research artifacts as to prepare himself better for his upcoming assignment.

And the Keeper is also responsible for giving me an artifact I can use in my mission... Garett endured the urge to rest; every fiber of his screaming for rest, but he couldn't relax his mind for some unknown reason.

"It just feels wrong..." He mumbled to himself.

Sounds of clanking steel and screeching wood reverberated in the darkness while the door opened. A weird combination of sulfur and formalin dizzied his senses, with the strong odors almost making him turn and leave on the spot.

"Please forgive the tardiness, Sir Keeper." Garett bowed while keeping one arm to his chest, every movement demonstrating utmost deference and respect.

I wonder what is he doing in there, what can possibly need the combination of sulfur and formalin?! Is he creating cadaver bombs? Actually, that's not a bad idea... Garett felt amused by this idea, a few applications of such a trap suddenly popping upon his mind.

"Oh, the young hunter came to pay me a visit." The elder nodded in remembrance before turning around after opening the door. "Come in. Remember to close the door after entering."

"Yes, Keeper." Garett refrained from asking about the Keeper's experiments, as it was a great taboo on the academic society to pry into another's research.

"You were rummaging through the old schematics in the deposit, yes?" The elder noted while looking for some books in a corner. It was apparent that he knew the location of every book in the place. "No good will come from researching old and faulty goods."

"I was only trying to understand the inner workings of firearms... I wasn't thinking of copying those schematics." Garett tersely clarified, hoping that he Keeper wouldn't misunderstand him.

"You could just study the blueprints of normal firearms then. There's no need to study artifacts." The keeper retorted, only half believing the young hunter's words. "These are my books on the subject, or at least the books with the more basic knowledge relating to it."

"That's very kind of you, sire." Garett gladly picked up the books offered by the old Keeper.

Most knowledge was in the hands of big churches and other large organizations. While the best place to go look for knowledge on such subjects was the College, Garett felt he wouldn't receive a warm welcome there.

So I could only look for something in the old deposit room. But who knew it would be so simple as to just ask! I can research these things in the open, as long as I don't reveal my abilities and continue to pose as an aspiring artisan... Garett nodded to himself in elation, one of his most pressing problems was the lack of knowledge to strengthen his powers capabilities.

"Since you are here, you can help me with a little experiment." The keeper suddenly voiced, eliciting Garett to raise his eyebrows.

"Y-Yes, sir." He stammered a response, flashes of the things Alice said passing through his head.

Alice said this old man is known as an eccentric, with all kinds of weird experiments and a difficult personality... He felt his luck was changing for the worse after having things going his way for so long. First, it was the sudden assignment that probably wasn't so simple as it looked, and now, the old keeper suddenly wanted his help in one of his weird experiments!

"No need to be nervous, it can even help you in your upcoming assignment." The Keeper spat at his apprehension, his eyes staring in disapproval.

"You already know about my assignment, sir?" Garett was surprised, as the elder rarely cared about the external affairs of the hunters. His status as a retired veteran was well known, and he made sure to let everyone know he didn't want anything to do with the frontlines ever again.

"Of course, the young boy Dante came here and asked me to prepare something for you." The senior hunter pointed to an ornamented box placed on one of the tables, Garett could remember this box, as it was the container used to hold the mystery lens used during the investigation at his apartment.

"You should already be familiar with those, and they should help you during your mission." He said after noticing Garett's expression. "And the experiment I'm holding today is also related to your little adventure."

"My little adventure?" Garett felt confused; suspicion starting to build within him. Dante had personally commissioned the old Keeper to help him during his first assignment! It was very uncommon for a recruit to walk around with one artifact, not to mention something personally crafted by the Keeper!

"Yes, and it would also be a good opportunity for you to watch the creation process of some... gadgets." The elder complemented while showing his yellowed teeth in a crooked smile.

Nonetheless, even with chills climbing Garett's spine, he followed the senior hunter.

The rows of bookshelves eventually made way to an open area at the back, and only a single, small door occupied the walls made from blackish stone.

"It's here." The elder said while carefully unlocking the door, at least three different locks prevented the door from being opened. "Be careful with your head."

The Keeper then entered the now open door, entering a crampy room with dim illumination and two tables occupying the middle. A multitude of shelves with all the more different objects adorned the walls,

Are all those artifacts? There should be at least a hundred in here! Were all these crafted by him? He sure has free time... Garett was amazed by the grand collection before his eyes, every single one of those was a mystic item! He could almost feel the energy radiating from them entering through his pores and invading his body!

"Y-you designed all those?" Garett stammered, his breathing somewhat heavy from the humongous pressure emitted by the items.

"Oh? Most of them, yes. Some are special items that the church obtained as spoils of war and gave to me for safekeeping." The elder nodded, pride evident in his voice as he nodded in satisfaction. "But your focus should be on the things on the tables."

Garett's eyes instantly jumped to the objects mentioned, one of them being a small clock with an ivory exterior, his surface shining as it reflected the dim light emitted by the gas lamps on the walls.

The other one was covered with a veil and had a corpulent mass, the smell it radiated attested it as the source of the heavy formalin smell.

Is it a body? Why is there a body in here? Is this how one creates artifacts? The captain said the mystery lenses were created using the eye of a deceased clergyman, and that his abilities were related to seeing energy. Is that a hunter's body? It could also be the body of a mutant... Garett felt weirdly excited at the prospect of observing the creation process of an artifact, this would help him greatly in the future! Maybe he could even materialize an artifact if he understood it well enough!

"Is that a...?" Garett mustered the courage to ask, his eyes not leaving the great mass that laid upon the table.

"A mutant body, yes." The old man said while smiling. It was as if he was a little kid looking at a shiny new toy. "This will be used as a base for a new artifact, the idea is to create a watch that can be used in conjunction with the mystery lenses."

"Used in conjunction?"

"Yes!" The elder exclaimed excitedly. "We aim to create a clock that can lock the energy of the past into place, making it easier to see what transpired in one place with those lenses!"