Unsafe Working Conditions : A He Who Fights With Monsters 6+ Companion Story

Chapter 7 - Old Sports Bag

 Henri stopped talking, looking at Liam who was clearly holding on by sheer willpower at this point. His body was covered with wounds that were oozing blood, apart from the one on his back that stained his shirt, and none were lethal though the number of them were concerning. Henri reached forward and steadied the man, "Let's talk more after you get some rest." Helping Liam to remove his bag and lay down on his side, Henri got a full look at how hard the man's time had been in just a short while.

As the breathing of the small man became regular and deep, Henri began to take inventory of what was in the small room. There were a number of different types of wire on spools, he had seen the like while moving in the corridor between the large atriums with Liam earlier. There was a small bundle of meat as well as other associate objects; a set of makeshift weapons of surprisingly high quality in the shape of a spear and an ax, a bag of lesser spirit coins, a bag of iron spirit coins, a bag of bronze spirit coins, and a smaller bag of silver spirit coins. All of the coins reminded him of ancient currency from Asia, they were square with the higher denominations having holes in the middle. There were a number of gadgets that seemed to serve a purpose, as well as a pair of scissors which glowed a soft blue in the artificial light of the small room.

Henri continued to sift through the contents of the room, opening cabinets and ruffling through them like a hungry teenager looking for food. He discovered an Awakening stone and an Essence Cube, the latter of which had greasy smears on all but one side. Setting them aside he began to organize everything into different cabinets. After tidying up everything in the room he crouched down in the open space left and conjuring a shadow quill he drew a simple aura concentration ritual circle, using some of the lesser spirit coins to power it. With everything that happened today, he realized if his awakened powers were gone other things could have changed as well.

Taking a quick look at Liam who was beginning to snore, he sat in the circle and using the techniques he was taught, began to inspect himself with minute detail. The ritual circle began to glow an ominous red, eventually manifesting runes about the size of his fist. Underneath each rune was a string of characters. They continued to appear and float in the air, totaling six before Henri opened his eyes.

With the look of a man seeing an expected surprise he began to read the strings of characters while muttering to himself.

Outworlder First Gift - Astral Affinity - Recovered from soul parasite

Outworlder Second Gift - Inventory - Contents have been locked due to soul parasite damage

Outworlder Third Gift - Learning Adept - Use skill book/chips and learn new languages at an accelerated rate

Outworlder Fourth Gift: Survivalist

Able to identify organic beings

Able to detect lifeforce of nearby beings

Able to detect nearby magic/dimensional instabilities

Outworlder Fifth Gift: Compass of Calico Jack

Compass points toward the thing that is most desired

Outworlder Sixth Gift: Paramount

Increased resistance to mental trauma

Increased recover from abnormal conditions (physical/mental)

Increase effect of healing from external sources

Eidetic memory

As Henri read on he was more intrigued, he had become an Outworlder according to the self reflection ritual. This meant they were no longer on Earth, and had at the very least traveled to another world, if not dimension.