“Okay, so I’ve gotten this new quest now to help you with your investigation, but what are we investigating exactly?” I asked the still-seated Gunderson next to me.
“Oh good, you got a quest for it. That’ll hopefully give you a nice chunk of experience points then.” He told me happily.
“It said 250.”
“Hmm, that’s a little lower than I was expecting.” Gunderson mused. “Based on that amount, I’d guess we’re not likely to completely wrap up this investigation during this outing.”
“You can tell that just from the experience point amount?” I asked with surprised curiosity.
“The Akashic Record bases the experience you receive on the overall challenge and duration of the quest you completed.” He explained. “With the scope of the investigation we are currently looking into, I’d expect at least a reward of 500 if it was something we were wrapping up today. Since it's less than half of what I’d expected, that tells me that either this case is a lot smaller than I expected or, more likely, given what I already know, even bigger than I expected.”
“Frick, well, this all sounds pretty important, but you still haven’t told me what the case is about yet.” I prompted.
“Sure, well let’s see, where to start?” Gunderson mused. “Recently, we’ve been receiving reports of unexplained deaths and missing persons among the paranatural community. At first, we didn’t link the two sets of events together until we noticed that the missing people were often last seen at the locations where the unexplained deaths were happening. This was when it was brought to my attention.”
“Wow, wait, we’re investigating a series of murders and disappearances right now?” I asked, feeling a slight wave of fear rush through me. If there were murders, that meant there must be a murderer then as well. Despite the magic superpowers I may have access to now, that thought still gave me chills.
“We think it’s likely murders based on the connection between the two sets of events, but also because this has been an ongoing problem.” Gunderson explained. “If this situation had only happened once, it might’ve just been an accident. In that case, it would most likely be considered a case of involuntary manslaughter.”
“Why did you think the murders were accidental? How does that work?” I asked.
“Well, at first, the unexplained deaths seemed to be the result of the drugs they had been taking.” He said while starting to open the car door to get out. “It wasn’t until I started looking into it that the cause of death was even linked to this new drug that has been cropping around the area.”
“New drug? I haven’t heard anything about that online or on the news. Is it some kind of magical drug?” I guessed, the uncertainty evident in my voice.
“Good guess.” He said to me with a smile while standing beside the car now. “Like I was saying, it wouldn’t be unusual for someone to overdose on a dangerous new drug or die from a bad batch that was unknowingly being distributed, but the deaths and disappearances persisted over weeks and then months. Premeditation seemed much more likely at that point.”
“Okay, so if I understand what you’re saying, we’re tracking down someone who’s killing people with drugs and also kidnapping other people as well?” I summarized while looking to Gunderson for his response. As he started to reply, I also got out of his car, mirroring his behavior.
“Yep, that’s the current theory we're working with.” He said with a nod. “Currently, we’re parked outside a curio shop, but Gribkik here is also an invaluable source of information for anyone with the money or resources to pay him. I’m hoping he can point us the direction of recent drug den these spikeheads like to hang out in, before they also start disappearing or turning into corpses.”
“Spikeheads?” I inquired.
“Ah yeah, the name of the drug we're looking into is popularly called ‘spike’.” He explained. “It probably got the name because the drug is delivered via a large metal spike that you stab into part of your body.”
“What the frick? People are stabbing themselves with metal spikes?” I asked in disgust.
“Well, they don’t leave it in as I understand it, and it’s mostly just a poke with the pointy tip at the end. But yeah, they are.” Gunderson said with a shrug.
“That’s messed up.” I told him sincerely. “Why would people do that to themselves?”
“There isn’t any one reason, but why does anyone use drugs?” Gunderson said while starting to walk to the rear of his car. “To feel good, to escape their shitty life, to fit in, there are any number of reasons.”
Following him to the rear of the car, I said. “So you’ve been looking into this case for a while now. It seems like you have a lot of experience doing this kind of stuff.”
“I have, and I do.” He said simply. “This is the kind of thing I’ve spent the majority of my time doing this last decade since Matteo’s passing. I like to think I’ve gotten pretty good at it over the years.”
“I see.” I said quietly. He brought this Matteo back up again. Part of me wants to ask more about him since he brought it up, but maybe we should just focus on the case first. There will be time to ask about him later.
“To be honest, I was also hoping to show off a little today.” Gunderson admitted. “I was kinda worried I didn’t leave you with the best impression after our first meeting on Monday.”
He’s trying to show off right now? I guess if he has as much experience as he says at doing investigative work, letting me shadow him around for a while might be an excellent opportunity to make a good impression. Although I still don’t think he did as badly as thinks during our meeting on Monday, the only really awful part in my mind was being yelled at by Mr. Irmingir.
“You’re too hard on yourself, Herbert.” I told him with a smile. “But I look forward to being impressed then today.”
“Well, I’m glad you said that then.” He said with an even bigger smile than my own. “Because behold my horde of treasure.”
As he said that, he popped open the car’s truck to reveal something that made my jaw drop open slightly.
“Wha-, what am I even looking at exactly?” I asked breathlessly.
Inside the trunk of Gunderon’s red convertible was what looked like a massive stockpile of bizarre weapons, ammunition, and other objects. And by huge, I mean the space I was looking down into had to be bigger than the actual car itself. It looked like you could fit an entire shipping container worth of stuff inside this bizarre space-defying car trunk. By the looks of the number of guns and weapons, that is precisely what Gunderson had done.
“There’s so many of them.” I muttered.
“I know, isn’t it beautiful.” Gunderson said while beaming with pride at the praise I was offering his beloved car. “Feel free to take a look at whatever interests you. I’m also here to answer any question you might have.”
Still feeling overwhelmed by the site of this physics-defying armory in a trunk, I started to focus in on the specific weapons and items that were stored inside it.
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It seemed like the majority of items stored inside here were weapons, and of those, the majority seemed to be different types of guns. Some of them looked familiar, handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, all the kinds I’d seen in movies or on tv shows, but there were also many more guns that were utterly unknown to me. Many seemed to vary between looking bizarrely alien or unusually primitive. But even the guns that seemed like they had been constructed several centuries ago were all in excellent condition and looked like they were made by a skilled craftsperson from quality materials.
“I don’t even know where to begin?” I admitted.
“Well, if I can make a recommendation.” Gunderson eagerly offered.
“Uh, sure.” I mumbled, my focus not leaving the plethora of weapons I had been looking over.
Gunderson reached inside, and as he did so, his arm seemed to stretch out and started looking like a cheap movie effect, as his arm somehow moved across the length of the colossal trunk’s interior while his body remained normal and standing comfortably outside the trunk and beside me.
He grabbed a hold of what looked like a small silver-looking pistol, but the configuration and style were not something I had ever seen before. After acquiring the item he wanted, his long taffy-like arm pulled back out of the trunk and revealed the thing that was still held in his hand, attached to his now normal-looking arm.
“What the heck was that?” I asked abruptly. “What did you just do with your arm?”
“Hmm?” He asked, surprised at my question. “Oh, uh, a side effect of moving between differently sized dimensional spaces. My arm actually remained the same size and proportions. It only looked weird and stretched because it was moving between the two spaces.”
“Weird.” I concluded.
“But cool.” Gunderson retorted with a smile. “So, anyways, this is what I wanted to show you first.”
He offered the small silver pistol out for me to look at. I didn’t want to pick it up right away, least of all because I’d never actually held a gun before, and this one was utterly alien to me.
“So why this one?” I asked. “Is there something special about it?”
“Well, not special, exactly.” Gunderson admitted. “It's more that it's both versatile and easy to use for beginners.”
“Which I am.” I said.
“Which you are.” Gunderson agreed. “This little pistol can pack quite a punch with the right ammunition, but it can also use less than lethal rounds if you chamber those instead.”
Gunderson demonstrated ejecting the empty magazine that had been inserted and showed it to me before putting it back in.
“There is, of course, a wide and extensive collection of ammunition available for you to choose from inside the trunk.” Said with a grand, expansive wave of his empty left hand. “But, for now, why don’t you hold it and see how it feels.”
Cautiously taking the weapon from his hand, I held it firmly in my grip, hefting it up and down to feel the weight. It was super light, it almost felt like it weighed nothing at all.
“I’m guessing you don’t have much, if any, experience with guns?” Gunderson asked.
“You would be correct about that.” I said back.
“Well, the first thing is don’t put your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to shoot it.” He said as I quickly pulled my finger off the trigger.
“Uh, sorry.” I said in embarrassment.
“No worries, that’s why I’m explaining things first.” He said with a patient smile. “Another important thing to note is the safety toggle there on the side.”
He pointed to a small little nob that was on the side of the gun.
“Ah, I see it.” I told him.
“Good, the safety is toggled on right now, but just switch it to the other position when you’re ready to actually fire a round.” He explained. “Also, you should probably take some mundane 9mm ammo to use with it for now. No need for anything too fancy yet. I doubt we’ll be facing any actual monsters today.”
“Ah, alright.” I replied hesitantly, not really knowing any better about this stuff and just trusting Gunderson knew what he was talking about.
After he reached in and pulled a couple of preloaded magazines for the pistol, he handed them to me. Putting his arm back into the weird space a final time, he pulled out a simple shoulder holster for me to put on.
“Here you are.” He said happily. “Nothing too snazzy like I said, but it’ll be a good practice weapon for you to use. Maybe you can try and get a skill for it, if you like.”
“Hmm, sure.” I said with evident uncertainty in my voice. While he’d been explaining that to me, I’d been slowly trying to get the shoulder holster put on correctly.
“Uh, here, let me help if that's alright.” Gunderson offered.
“Yes, please.” I grumbled in defeat, stopping my efforts before I tied myself up into ribbons.
A minute or so later, the shoulder holster had been adequately equipped, and the ammo for it slotted into the little pocket things on the other side.
“You look pretty badass now, huh.” Gunderson told me with a broad smile on his face.
“So these bullets are just normal mundane ones?” I asked cautiously. “Will they even work against people with magic stuff?”
“Depends on the person and the magic stuff.” Gunderson responded. “But, you may have a point… We could give you some stronger ammo, a bit of the good stuff, blessed by Father Alvardo even, but there’s also….”
Gunderson stopped talking for a while and seemed to be wrestling with his thoughts.
“What is it?” I asked, trying to get him to reveal his true thoughts.
“Well, I was thinking you could use a good melee weapon to go with your pistol, preferably something non-lethal as well. Once I had that thought, the perfect item came to mind, but it’s well….”
He reached under the right side of his suit jacket and pulled out what looked like a matte black stick.
“This would probably work well for you.” He finally said.
“But isn’t that yours?” I asked.
“It is, and it’s not.” He said cryptically. “It’s…well, it’s kind of my own design and a twist on the type of weapon Matteo used to use when he was fighting monsters.”
“He used a stick?” I asked, not understanding.
“What? No, he actually used a baseball bat, but he enhanced it with his abilities.” Gunderson explained. “This though…”
Instead of completing his sentence, he quickly flicked the black stick in a direction away from him, causing the stick to stretch out and lengthen into a sleek black baton.
“...is something different?” Gunderson said before seeming to press a small button on the baton’s hilt. A hazy but visible field of grey energy seemed to start emitting up and down the baton’s length.
“Woah, what is that?” I asked, trying to discern what I could from the field of energy it was emitting.
“I call it ‘The Repulsor Baton’, or just ‘The Repulsor’.” Gunderson said with a pained smile on his face. “It’s supposed to mimic the abilities that Matteo used when he fought.”
“Ah, and you’re letting me use this.” I slowly asked.
“Yeah, it seems fitting.” He said. “Even if this is only a variation of a copy, it still seems right that you have it.”
After deactivating the energy field around it, he offered it to me. Taking it carefully from his hand, I held it out before me to inspect it.
“So, what does it do?” I asked while trying to study the object.
Repulsor Baton
A sleek black metal baton, with a variable force mana-field surrounding its length. Strikes with this weapon will have a strong knockback effect on impact.
“Oh!” I said, stopping Gunderson before he could reply. “It’s wrapped in a field of force mana that has a strong knockback effect when it impacts.”
“Um, yeah, basically.” Gunderson agreed. “Did you just use a skill to analyze it or something?”
“Yeah, it kinda just popped up as I was looking at it.” I admitted.
“Hmm, well, the description it gave you sounds about right, and I did say it's primarily used as a nonlethal weapon, but it can be used in a much more lethal fashion as well.” Gunderson said in a slow, cautious manner that his eager smile didn’t match with.
“Okay…?” I prompted.
“Well, imagine this.” He began excitedly. “You manage to land a large cut or wound on some monster, right? Well, all you need to do next is stick the tip of this bad boy here right into it and then flick the switch on, full power.”
The grin he gave me as he said it was almost maniacal.
I squinted at him, not understanding where he was going with this.
In response, he put both hands together in front of his face and, in slow motion manner, mimed an explosion taking place in front of his face before concluding his demonstration by making a loud *POP* sound.
“Just like an overblown balloon.” He said with an even more wicked smile on his face.