Besides the letter, the Order had also sent over a set of Church Hunter clothing—a long black coat trimmed with white edges, a belt, leather boots, and a black tricorn hat.
A Church Hunter's badge.
A standard-issue silver sword.
As for the gun David had been expecting, it hadn't been delivered. The letter said he needed to pick it up at the Order tomorrow.
The most special item was a silver pocket watch.
The dial had two rings—one red, one blue. Just press your thumb on the short hand at the top of the watch, and it would display your life energy and psychic energy values on the lower part of the dial.
Normal people didn't have David's kind of mysterious interface panel displayed on their retinas. If hunters hadn't acquired an ability like the Watcher's, they could rely on this pocket watch to accurately check their status.
Of course, through years of training and combat, hunters would get better and better at gauging their own condition, so this watch was just for reference.
David pressed his finger on it and found that the two rows of number wheels below the dial had already rolled past 99999—it couldn't even display his stats...
He tossed the watch aside and sat down in his chair, lost in thought.
The hunter trial mentioned in the letter was a test that all hunters had to undergo, just like Veronica and Muken had done before. Only after completing this trial could they receive proper hunter benefits.
Otherwise, he'd forever be just an intern.
Probably because of his backdoor entry, David's trial didn't look too complicated. He just needed to complete one mission assigned by the Order.
...
The next day, David once again entered the church through the side door at the Church of Light plaza. Following the instructions in the booklet, he easily found the Order's location in the church's underground.
Fernandes was already waiting for him.
"David Frank, starting today, I'll be assigning your missions. As for hunter-related training... well, you probably don't need to rush that."
The old man looked David up and down in his hunter outfit, nodding with slight satisfaction. He also knew about David's track record of "solo fighting" the Undead Montaigne, so he didn't doubt his abilities.
"Actually, before she left, Olivia volunteered to become your mentor. Ha, that's really rare... But since she's very busy and probably won't be back anytime soon, I'll be handling your matters temporarily."
As Fernandes led him deeper underground, he continued, "But I'm busy too, so don't come looking for me unless you've got something important..."
"Got it." David pressed down his hat brim.
"Kid, don't think you're hot shit just because you could play punching bag for a Fallen. You've still got a lot to learn. I found another guy—well, gal—with slightly more experience than you to be your partner. You can ask her about the basic stuff."
"Her?"
Before David could ask more, Fernandes pushed open a large metal door. A smell of gun oil wafted out from behind it, covering up the musty odor of the underground passage.
"Hello, Mr. David Frank. Welcome to the Order's firearms workshop."
A bald man appeared from behind the door, smiling as he welcomed David inside.
The workshop had quite a few technicians maintaining and assembling firearms. The various intricate parts of those hunter short guns laid out after disassembly made David's head spin.
Actually, learning the structural principles of hunter short guns was one of his required courses, but right now he knew basically nothing about it.
The bald man led him to a room full of guns. Fernandes glanced around, then impatiently dropped a line, "Cage, this guy's all yours. I've got stuff to do, I'm out."
"Take care, Lord Fernandes."
After seeing the old man off, the bald man smiled and gestured with a sweep of his hand.
"Mr. Frank, now you can freely pick any firearm here that catches your eye. Once you complete the hunter trial, it'll be yours to keep forever."
David casually scanned the room and quickly noticed the thickest, biggest "gun" on the rack.
No, that thing looked more like a small hand cannon as long as his arm...
"I want that one." David said expressionlessly.
"Uh..."
The bald man's smile turned awkward. He realized he'd forgotten to put away that experimental piece he'd tinkered with when he was bored.
That thing was originally just something he'd made on a bet to show off that "workshop products are tough and big"—a twisted creation.
"Are you sure? This gun puts an enormous burden on the user..."
"No problem. That's the one."
In the end, the bald man couldn't resist David's insistence and handed over that "gun" with a caliber of 0.85.
Whatever—the kid would return it once he experienced its pump-like blood-draining effect...
That's what the bald man thought.
Turns out he was dead wrong—and I mean way off.
When he watched David in the underground shooting range empty a whole bunch of targets across the way into powder with consecutive shots without even changing expression, bald Cage's jaw dropped wide enough to fit another bald head inside.
After being transformed by the hunter potion, David's blood could now activate this hunter-exclusive weapon.
This short gun in his hand called "Heavy Hammer" consumed a whopping 200 psychic energy points per shot. If his psychic energy ran out, it would directly drain his life energy.
For ordinary hunters, this was a killer consumption rate—completely unusable. But for a monster like David, it was no pressure at all.
He didn't even need to load extra bullets—he could easily condense projectiles directly from his own blood.
The massive consumption of "Heavy Hammer" brought even more exaggerated destructive power than regular short guns. Against ordinary flesh, a single bullet could produce effects similar to a hand grenade.
David was extremely satisfied with it. This was definitely the most suitable weapon for him.
Under the bald man's dazed gaze, he holstered the gun at his waist and left the workshop directly.
...
In the underground passage, David saw the partner assigned to work with him on the mission—a familiar face: Veronica.
The female hunter had tied up her red hair and tucked it under her hunter hat. Combined with her form-fitting long coat, she looked heroic and spirited.
After not seeing her for a while, she seemed to have regained some confidence. Seeing David appear in his Order hunter outfit, she showed a bright smile.
"Hello, Mr. David. Starting today, I'm your new partner, Veronica."
David tipped his hat to her. "So you didn't give up after all."
Veronica nodded. "Her Highness gave me a second chance."
"So you're working for Princess Roland now?"
"Not me... us." The female hunter smiled meaningfully, then turned to lead the way.
"Mr. David, your hunter trial is also my trial mission. We need to get started right away... At the same time, we also need to complete something Her Highness asked us to do."
David raised an eyebrow, thinking: Here comes the real deal. Roland stuffing him into the Order definitely wasn't just to give him a title.
"What is it?"
"We need to secretly help Her Highness recover a missing fourth-tier forbidden object—the Twin Demon Mirror."
As Veronica spoke, she handed David a simple dossier. It listed some basic information about the Twin Demon Mirror, along with a sketch of its appearance.
"Our mission is related to this forbidden object?"
David glanced at it twice, and something suddenly clicked in his mind, though his face remained impassive.
"You could say there's a bit of a connection, but not much. The task of finding the forbidden object is currently being handled by several other high-tier hunters. We're just dealing with one peripheral issue of this case."
"So Her Highness wants us to get our hands on it before those high-tier hunters recover the mirror?" David smiled. "And we can't let the other team find out, so we need to circle around the edges, quietly searching for clues and breakthroughs?"
"Smart." Veronica confirmed. "Lord Fernandes said my last partner was an idiot with nothing but hot blood, which is why my trial failed... Looks like this time, he found me a good partner."
David made no comment, pulling down his hat brim to hide his restless gaze. "So, let's talk about our mission first."
"Right. Our mission is to help Master Julius the alchemist recover potions stolen by his apprentice, and that alchemist's employer is the original owner of the Twin Demon Mirror, Earl Kingsley..."
"A theft case, finding stolen goods—isn't that police and detective work?"
"Normally, yes."
Veronica playfully blinked and added, "But those aren't ordinary potions. Master Julius says his apprentice has likely already turned into a monster under the influence of those potions..."