Gordon

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Gordon Vick (高登); also rendered “Gordon Wick” 10 43
Species/Race	Human; transmigrator 1 28
Gender	Male
Age	20 at the beginning of the story 1
Affiliation	Royal Academy of Natural Sciences University, Department of Biomedical Sciences; Professor Winslow’s laboratory 1 4 36
Occupation/Role	Second-year university student, laboratory assistant, and part-time demon hunter; Vera’s employer and medical caretaker 3 4 21 46
Residence	Initially the university dissection laboratory; later the second-floor apartment at 9 Knights Road, Lundenim 1 26
Source Substance	Unbroken Strings, obtained from a Spider Aberration 2 3
Status	Alive; targeted by Olivia and her associate 50
First Appearance	Chapter 1 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Initial Source Substance fusion	2 3	Brews and drinks a highly potent Unbroken Strings potion. Gains modest physical improvements and the resonance ability Synchronized Conduction, allowing precise nerve and muscle control.
Deeper integration	13	Unbroken Strings continues integrating with his brain while he sleeps; he dreams of the Silver Fish Holy Casket taking shape.
External sensory extension	26	Through inward observation, discovers that his “strings” can gather subtle vibrations from floors, walls, air, and pipes rather than only regulate his body.
Deepened fusion through combat training	27	Extends his perception across an entire room and dodges three consecutive attacks from Vera. A notification confirms deeper fusion; the increased sensory input causes severe head pain.
Self-Body stage identified; outward expansion toward Force Field	48	Vera identifies his existing stage as Self-Body. After roughly ten hours of meditation, his power saturates his body and overflows outward, strengthening his mental perception and revealing threads connecting objects.

Background / History

Gordon transmigrates into a penniless student at the Royal Academy of Natural Sciences University. His student loans total 100 gold pounds, equivalent to 2,000 silver pounds or 200,000 copper pennies. Until he repays them, he must work for the university. His initial job under Professor Winslow pays poorly but allows him to sleep on a narrow wooden table in the dissection laboratory 1.

Three days before the opening chapter, a supposedly dead black goat-shaped Aberrant’s head explodes during dissection, spraying cloudy fluid into Gordon’s eyes. After treatment, he begins seeing notifications that describe objects and expose hidden properties. The hospital also leaves him a bill for 21 silver pounds. Gordon did not possess this sight when he first transmigrated, and its exact nature remains uncertain 1 37.

Financial Milestones

Milestone	Amount	Details
Initial student loans	100 gold pounds	The debt obliges him to work for the university 1.
Purchase of the Spider Aberration	18 silver pounds	Borrowed from Charlotte; repaid after the Montfort estate incident 2 13.
Laboratory assistant’s wage	3 silver pounds per week	Winslow promotes him after his exceptional dissection assessment 4.
Savings upon moving to 9 Knights Road	33 gold pounds, 8 silver pounds, 97 copper pennies	Remaining after living expenses and money given to Vera 26.
Savings after the Harold affair	59 gold pounds, 7 silver pounds, 48 copper cents	Calculated after selling recovered materials and paying for supplies, food, and treatment 36.

Appearance

• Build: Initially lacks the muscular definition of someone who has exercised for years; Olivia’s associate later describes him as scrawny 25 50.
• Eyes: Bright and keen during Martin Holt’s assessment. Olivia notices that they look deeper than in Harold’s portrait 43 50.
• Clothing: Wears an ordinary university uniform and a cheap, worn coat; Charlotte offers to obtain a new outfit for him 41 43.
• Later accessory: Carries a blackthorn cane acquired at the Rescue Festival charity sale 50.

Personality

Gordon is intensely practical about money. He bargains over corpses, calculates hunting expenses, and treats even small amounts of change as achievements. His dry humor frequently turns debt, medical bills, and dangerous work into jokes. Nevertheless, he chooses to absorb his first Source Substance rather than sell it, prioritizing a lasting change in his circumstances over an immediate payout 1 2 25 36.

He repays kindness and objects to exploitation. Charlotte’s financial support motivates him to help investigate her family’s mansion, while Vera’s low wages provoke him to offer fairer work and medical care. As their partnership develops, he insists that she should not always bear the danger alone 4 13 21 27.

His curiosity is both a strength and a potential symptom of his power. He wants to study all four of Winslow’s supernatural disciplines, but becomes so absorbed in books and connections that he neglects food, water, and sleep. Vera begins recording his health alongside her own and supervising his rest 38 39 40 41.

Gordon is cautious about exposing valuable discoveries, yet increasingly willing to confront threats directly. He conceals his Source Substance extractions and requests academic anonymity, but refuses to remain passive once Harold’s followers target him 3 25 28 37.

Abilities & Skills

Informational Sight

Following the goat-shaped Aberrant accident, Gordon sees notifications on his retinas that identify objects, substances, injuries, and other properties 1 2 6.

• Detects Unbroken Strings inside a spider corpse that Winslow has judged to contain no Source Substance 1 2.
• Identifies the Never-Healing Wound within Vera’s sword and explains why its cuts do not close 22.
• Recognizes the emotional effects of Sorrow and Thorns, helping Sinclair reconsider its intended use 37.
• Can inspect mundane hazards, including the composition of tap water 48.
• Its origin is not established as a Source Substance ability; Gordon himself remains unsure 37.
• Does not reveal Charlotte’s private thoughts when she takes his hands 25.

Unbroken Strings — Synchronized Conduction

Unbroken Strings initially regulates Gordon’s nerves and muscles, reducing delays and errors between intention and movement. Training develops it into a means of sensing connections and physical causes in his surroundings 3 26 27.

• Fine control: Performs delicate gland extraction and restores the dissected spider’s body with exceptionally precise stitching 3 4.
• Predictive movement: Reads shoulder shifts, air displacement, sound, and other cues to anticipate attacks and tennis shots 26 27.
• Environmental sensing: Detects movement through floors, walls, air, water, and pipes; identifies hidden attackers at Lace Pumping Station 26 30.
• Recognition: Distinguishes people through breathing, body heat, and heartbeat 27.
• Connection perception: Sees luminous links when casket extract draws Deepclaw Demons, and later perceives fine threads connecting household objects 19 48.
• Limits: This is not direct future sight. Excessive use causes exhaustion and pain, and knowing an attack is coming does not guarantee that he can physically evade it 27 48.
• Countermeasure: Vera’s stronger Force Field overrides his external perception and forces his power back into his body 48.

Anatomy & Medical Care

Gordon combines university training with supernatural precision to dissect Aberrants and manage Vera’s injuries and Source Substance symptoms 3 7 34.

• Removes a White Rat Monster’s tremor gland while preserving surrounding nerves 3 4.
• Prevents a laboratory accident by releasing pressurized gas from a Rabid Demon before its chest is opened 42 43.
• Sutures Vera’s wounds, changes dressings, and regulates her food, rest, medication, and power use 34 46.
• Studies whether environmental changes can reduce Aberrant symptoms, drawing on Vera’s improvement under a more stable routine 43.
• His role as Vera’s doctor is stated in their conversations; the supplied account does not establish a completed medical qualification 46.

Spiritual Craftsmanship & Ritual Analysis

Gordon applies laboratory methods and technical drafting to supernatural materials 2 20 46.

• Produces about ten milliliters of highly active Source Substance potion using discarded laboratory supplies and Winslow’s extraction method 2.
• Creates the Living Water Compass through Spiritual Fumigation, using spirituality recovered from river fish 20.
• Analyzes the Tidal Birth-Rite as requiring an embryo, womb, amniotic fluid, supernatural vitality, and genetic information 41.
• Designs and commissions an artificial womb as a Spiritual Reaction Vessel for reproducing the ritual 45 46 47.
• Has not yet created or absorbed his planned second Source Substance in the documented events 41 47.

Investigation, Negotiation & Tactics

Gordon uses observation, scarce resources, and other people’s interests to compensate for his limited direct fighting strength 15 16 29 31.

• Proposes a demonstrably improved showcase section for the Blackwater River cleanup rather than promising complete restoration 15.
• Persuades Count Montfort to transfer the dangerous casket to the university by emphasizing political and academic prestige 16.
• Exposes Thomas’s surveillance by combining compass readings with the cultist’s refusal to eat fish 24.
• Counters Harold’s protective clam ritual with explosives aimed at its physical infrastructure 31.
• Advises Sinclair to patent rifle components and ammunition separately to prevent easy imitation 46.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Blackthorn cane — A concealed energy conduit with internal channels and storage nodes. Tapping it against the ground spreads Gordon’s power outward and returns detailed movement information from dozens or even hundreds of meters away 49 50.
• Living Water Compass — His first wondrous item. Detects spiritual sources and connections associated with the contaminated river; points toward the casket from roughly twenty meters away and reacts to the threatening letter 20 24.
• Eelbone Amulet — Makes his presence less noticeable during the approach to Lace Pumping Station 30.
• Portable supernatural sampling kit — Given by Winslow for preserving and analyzing field evidence 29.
• Womb amniotic fluid — Casket secretions used to lure Deepclaw Demons and bargain for intelligence. His stored supply becomes finite after the reliquary stops secreting it 15 29.
• “Newborn Yet to Choose Its Form” — Nascent Source Substance secretly recovered from the dried casket and sealed in a bottle. Gordon seeks ritual knowledge to give it an appropriate power 28 29.
• Harold’s records — A notebook, underground-waterway map, Olivia’s guarantee letter, and a rubbing of the Tidal Birth-Rite; retained for their investigative value 34 35 36.
• Siren Demon scale — A multicolored scale recovered after the pumping-station mission, suspected to have supplied genetic information for Harold’s transformation 36 41.
• Winslow’s foundational books — The Aberrant Dissection Atlas, The Properties of Source Substance, Introduction to Spiritual Craftsmanship: Commanding Source Substance, and Symptoms of Source Substance Pollution 38.

Relationships

• Charlotte Montfort — Classmate, creditor, and close ally. Finances his first Source Substance purchase, investigates Harold, and secures 9 Knights Road. Their mutual concern develops into increasingly explicit flirtation, though Gordon remains aware of their social gap 2 25 26 36 41.
• Vera Cateret — Employer–hunter relationship develops into a shared household and lasting partnership. Gordon provides treatment, education, and stability; Vera protects him and teaches him Source Substance training. Both resist leaving the other to face danger alone 13 21 26 27 34 40 48.
• Professor Winslow — Employer and mentor. Promotes Gordon, provides books and laboratory access, defends him against organized threats, and prepares him to represent his research publicly 4 20 29 38 43.
• Peter Gershkovich — Senior student and laboratory colleague. Supplies market contacts and logistical help, but regularly objects to being drawn into Gordon’s dangerous projects 10 11 29 30.
• Count Guy Montfort — Charlotte’s father. Benefits from Gordon’s investment observations and crisis management, but withholds praise that might encourage Charlotte’s romantic interest 14 15 16.
• Arthur Gray — Professional Hunter and occasional adviser or trading partner. Warns Gordon about Vera’s condition and later buys the failed Source Substance recovered from Harold’s affair 16 35 36.
• Sinclair — Spiritual artisan who respects Gordon’s analytical and drafting skills. Accepts his artificial-womb commission and promises him a rifle after receiving patent advice 37 46 47.
• Harold Wade — Cult-linked enemy implicated in the attack on Gordon. Gordon and Vera track him to Lace Pumping Station and destroy his transformation setup 25 30 31 36.
• Olivia Brendel — Harold’s guarantor and a continuing threat. Gordon initially treats her involvement as unproven; she later recognizes him from Harold’s portrait and postpones an associate’s proposal to kill him 35 36 50.
• Martin Holt — Aberrant Affairs Bureau Investigator evaluating potential university recruits. Recognizes that Gordon understands supernatural dangers beyond his classmates’ experience 43 44.
• Eve Grant — Scholar of Ancient Logris Script whom Gordon contacts through Winslow to investigate the ritual inscription and Fisher King references 38 41.

Story Role / Major Arcs

First Source Substance & Academic Promotion

• Discovers hidden Source Substance during Winslow’s public spider dissection, borrows money to buy the corpse, and refines Unbroken Strings into himself 1 2.
• Conceals the extraction by reconstructing the spider and earns promotion to laboratory assistant after demonstrating exceptional dissection skills 3 4.

Montfort Estate & Blackwater Hunting

• Accompanies Charlotte to her sealed ancestral home, challenges Evans’s plumbing explanation, and encounters Vera and the Deepclaw Demons 4 5.
• Determines that the crucial question is what attracted the demons, rather than simply how to stop them 9.
• Uses casket precipitate to organize a mass hunt with Vera, Peter, and Old Baz, reducing the immediate threat and earning money 11 13 15.
• Identifies the casket’s leaking fluid as the likely infestation source and arranges its transfer to the university 16.

Cult Retaliation & Harold’s Ritual

• Investigates fish-derived spirituality, creates the Living Water Compass, and hires Vera after a wet-handprint threat reaches Old Baz 20 21.
• Helps expose Thomas as a Blackwater Hermitage agent; Charlotte’s household records then identify Harold as the likely organizer of the attack 24 25.
• Establishes a safe home at 9 Knights Road and trains until Vera accepts him as a capable partner for the pursuit 26 27.
• Tracks Harold to Lace Pumping Station, identifies the ambush, and uses a five-pound explosive charge to disrupt the clam-based transformation ritual 30 31.
• Returns with an injured Vera and valuable records. Harold’s defeat leaves the underground waterways, Fisher King, and suspicious dry-land drownings unresolved 34 36.

Research Legacy & Second Source Substance Project

• Secretly retrieves Newborn Yet to Choose Its Form from the casket while presenting its drying as the end of an experimental cycle 28.
• Contributes samples, assessment, and records to Winslow’s paper on inducing Deepclaw Demons. The paper is accepted by the Journal of the Royal Society of Logris, with Gordon remaining anonymous 37 43.
• Undertakes all four of Winslow’s disciplines: supernatural anatomy, Source Substance natural history, spiritual craftsmanship, and pollution pathology 38.
• Reconstructs the requirements of the Tidal Birth-Rite and commissions Sinclair’s artificial womb to investigate creating a second Source Substance 41 47.

Investigator Opportunity & Rescue Festival

• Supervises classmates during the Rabid Demon autopsy and helps prevent an accident, strengthening Winslow’s case for recommending him to the Bureau 42 43.
• Pursues the trainee Investigator opportunity through research. The badge’s authority and annual salary of thirty gold pounds appeal to him, but recruitment is not yet confirmed 44 45.
• Advances his Source Substance integration, acquires the blackthorn cane, and notices that Aileen Brendel’s singing carries unnaturally and resembles the mermaid encountered during the pumping-station affair 48 49 50.
• Unbeknownst to him, Olivia marks him for later action while refusing to disrupt the festival with his murder 50.

Notable Quotes

“Professor, debt makes me anxious. I can't comprehend grand narratives. … These days, even my sweet dreams come in installments.” 4

“I don't charge in, I don't take hits from monsters, and I'm not responsible for swearing my loyalty in front of your ancestors' portraits. If there's danger, I'll run faster than you.” 4

“I couldn't afford my student loan payments, so I had to take up Demon Hunting on the side.” 34