Mystic Investigators

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Beatrice! Above at your 8 o'clock!" hearing the bullet shells falling to the ground, a middle-aged man with curly, blond hair and dressed in a silvery, grey robe warned with a holler from outside the apartment room.

Swiftly turning towards his left, a young lady with long, brown hair fired her gun at a child-size, gray corpse that was hanging off the ceiling.

Bang! Bang!

Runic marks flashed on her Colt M1911 twice as two holes were accurately blown in the corpse's head, causing juice to splash out as the corpse fell to the ground and began to wither. Without even frowning, the lady aimed her gun at another small corpse that was sprinting out of a bedroom.

Bang! Headshot. Her female sheriff costume outlined her figure as Beatrice blew the smoke coming out of her gun while standing there proudly. Beatrice then calmly, but swiftly reloaded her gun while commanding a skinny Asian man next to her, "Hao, cover me."

The Asian man gritted his teeth as he held a crowbar tightly. Seeing a small corpse crawling out of the room towards them, Gu Hao stepped forward and smashed down his crowbar.

Crack! The sound of the contact discomforted Gu Hao as he watched juice squirt out. He stepped back to dodge the icky, unknown juice and held his crowbar up in defense.

Not long after, the gun was reloaded and Beatrice began her slaughter once more. Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Careful! The big one is finally moving," the blonde man from outside hollered as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed while watching the show.

Next to him stood a tan-skinned lady with long black hair and dressed in a t-shirt with jeans. With her hands clenched in worry, the lady cheered, "Gu Hao! Be careful!"

Screeee! A screech sounded from the bedroom. Thud! A giant baby corpse dropped onto the ground of the bedroom from the ceiling and began to rapidly crawl forward towards the duo in the living room.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bullet holes appeared on the head of the giant corpse, causing juice to spill out, but the corpse kept crawling forward as if it was unaffected. Shooting the couple of small corpses crawling closer, Beatrice frowned as she commanded, "Hao, use it."

Gu Hao gritted his teeth before pulled out a talisman from his pocket. Watching the couple of small corpses crawling towards the doorway, Gu Hao targeted the giant baby and activated the talisman, "Holy Smite!"

A holy light shot from the talisman before striking the corpse baby, piercing a big hole through its head. The hole seemed to be scorched and it failed to heal.

Waaaaaaa! The corpse baby cried in pain as it began to shrivel up. It wasn't long before it shrunk and dried up like the other small corpses. However, Gu Hao ignored this as he stared sadly at the remaining dust of the talisman in his hand while sighing, "That's another stack of money down the drain."

Rolling her eyes, Beatrice smacked Gu Hao on the back roughly as she said with a grin, "Hey, whatcha crying about? After we complete the mission, we will get enough pay to purchase a couple of those cheap talismans."

"You won't understand my pain, it's the pain of burning money," Gu Hao whimpered with crocodile tears while letting the dust fall from his hand.

"Hey! Don't look down on the cost of my bullets! Let me tell you-" Beatrice began to lectured, but was interrupted when a lady ran up to Gu Hao in worry.

"Hao, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Do you need any treatment? I made sure to bring medical supplies," the lady asked as she unzipped her loaded backpack that she took off from her back.

Gu Hao shook his head as a radiant smile appeared on his face, "Lena, don't worry, I'm not hurt. Rather than that, are you tired from carrying so much stuff?"

Lena blushed as she stared at Gu Hao's face. She shook her head rapidly as she replied, "Don't worry Hao, I'm not tired. I should at least do this much. After all, I'm kind of useless in a fight ..."

"Don't say that Lena, you are not useless. It's just that the path you are aspiring to be requires you to tinker with these things. Once you become a Craftsman, you would have some combat power! Even so, I wouldn't want you to fight because I don't want to see you get hurt," Gu Hao encouraged.

"Mmm ... after I become a craftsman, I will make sure that you worry about lacking talismans!" Lena affirmed with a happy smile as a faint blush appeared on her face.

Beatrice rolled her eyes by the side as she strolled over to the middle-aged man man dressed in a robe, "Jack, let's just ignore the lovebirds, what's next on the list? Are we going to continue to investigate this building?"

The middle-aged man glanced at Beatrice as he sternly replied, "Please call me Sir, or Captain."

Beatrice huffed as she replied, "Yes, Cap!"

Jack's mouth twitched before he closed his eyes. An invisible spiritual wave then expanded from his mind as he got a faint sense of the surrounding. He then opened his eyes as he stated, "If we keep heading down the hallway, there will be at least one more room with a lingering spirit inside, but you've had enough warm-up here after clearing a couple of rooms. We should get down to the real investigation."

Hearing Jack's decision, Gu Hao walked over with Lena as he warned with a hint of worry, "Sir, maybe we should come back in the morning for investigation. It's rather dangerous here at night."

"Oii! Whatcha worrying bout Hao! How dangerous could it be? There's four of us, and we got weapons. No matter what pops up, we just gotta pew pew them!" Beatrice confidently said, "Plus, even if there's something we three can't handle, Cap can take care of it! Cap's an official mystic after all, a magician!"

Jack sighed as he rubbed his eyebrows, "Beatrice, magicians aren't omnipotent. Although I use my magic tricks to survive, I can still be killed by a gun if I'm not prepared. Even if I'm an official mystic, we can't be so flippant because we don't know what danger we will encounter. Even though the rewards are good, know that investigation missions are one of the most dangerous missions on the list. Honestly, if I didn't have the info from Gu Hao, I might not have taken this mission."

"Uwuuu, no fun," Beatrice muttered, "What danger can we even encounter? Even if we do encounter something scary, didn't Hao say that there was a safe house on the fourth floor? We can hide in there can't we?"

Jack stared at Beatrice sternly as he said seriously, "Beatrice, and you two as well. Listen well and remember this. There are NO safe houses when you encounter these supernatural beings. Don't just believe that they are friendly and safe just because they let you escape once. The horrors of these monsters are much more frightening than you could imagine. One moment they might help you, the next they will backstab you and cause you to fall into a pit of despair. Never trust them. Understood?"

Beatrice, Gu Hao, and Lena glanced at each other before nodding there heads, "Understood."

"As for that constipation ghost that Hao talked about, that's the first I've ever heard of it. Although it doesn't sound too dangerous except for making you constipate, still don't let your guard down. You don't know what tricks it might hide. I heard there was a lot of calls from an unknown person requesting for service workers. Although no deaths occurred, I have a hunch that it is the doing of this 'friendly' ghost that you speak of. This allows me to have more reasons to believe that this spirit's danger factor lays in its intelligence rather than its constipation ability, if that ability exists at all," Jack concluded in a solemn tone.

Beatrice rolled her eyes as she commented, "A ghost that makes you sh*t? I would rather believe that the devil exists."

Smack! Jack gave Beatrice a smack on her head as he reprimanded, "Who says it doesn't exist? Don't mention that existence or we risk attracting its attention."

Beatrice's face stiffened as she glanced around before she patted her chest to calm herself while muttering, "Hey, I didn't mean to ..."

"Alright, let's go. We don't have all night, so we should explore all we can and report back our findings. The more we discover, the more rewards we get," Jack commanded as he clapped his hands, "Just a couple of weak lingering spirits aren't enough for any substantial evidence. Hao, I heard that you met a powerful spirit in the stairway? Although unconfirmed, I have reason to believe that it is a blood spirit. Although I am only a level 1 mystic, I have brought some artifacts that can deal with blood spirits, providing it doesn't exceed orange rank in danger."

"Sir ... what if it does exceed orange?" Gu Hao muttered weakly.

"Well ... then we run and report it to the department for our investigation report," Jack stated.

"But sir-" Gu Hao wanted to argue further, but was interrupted.

"I know your worries Hao. I also know it might be dangerous, but with risks come opportunity. You must know that it costs a lot to go from a mystic apprentice to an official mystic. Well, let me tell you the cost is even steeper after you become an official mystic. Have you seen the recent news in the department? The turmoil is growing, and those trashy parasitic cultists are on the move again. I don't know what they are up to, but it's nothing good. It's going to get dangerous, and we all need strength to protect ourselves. If we can hunt down a blood spirit, we will get enough rewards for all our promotions. Hao, don't you want to be a Holy Soldier? Lena, Craftsman? And Beatrice, you want to become a Hunter don't you?"

The trio's eyes sparkled in excitement as they thought about their path of promotion. Lena couldn't help but ask softly, "Then what about you Captain?"

"Me?" Jack muttered with a proud smile, "It will be a level 2 mystic, an Acolyte! At that time, my current magic tricks will seem like child play as Acolyte is the beginning of real magic!"

"Real magic ..." Gu Hao muttered to himself with a hint of curiosity, but he shook the thought out of his mind as he resolutely confirmed, "No, I want to become a Holy Soldier. I heard that the path will lead to a class that can protect others!"

"Alright, alright, don't daydream. All of these can only happen if we hunt that blood spirit successfully. Otherwise, who knows how long it will take to gather enough resources for a promotion, years maybe?" Jack stated as he pulled out a bronze sword out of thin air.

Seeing the trio stare at this with amazement, Jack explained, "It's not what you think it is, it's just a simple magic trick. Hidden in the sleeves of my robe ... understand?"

The trio sighed in disappointment as Beatrice couldn't help but mutter, "Aren't magicians supposed to keep their tricks a secret to keep the sense of mystery?"

"Well, it's just some common tricks that you can find online, but mastered to a more extreme extent. Once I become an acolyte, it wouldn't be tricks you can understand like these anymore so it doesn't matter if break the mystery of these low-level tricks," giving the sword two swings, Jack held it firmly in his hands as he commanded, "Alright, let's go to the stairway."

With that the four headed off to the stairway where the blood spirit stayed. As for whether their hunt succeeds or if they would become prey, only time will tell and they can only pray.