Here There be Monsters [Noir Detective, Light LitRPG, Urban Fantasy]

Max Graves is down on his luck.  His Private Investigator business is on the skids, he's behind on rent, and his good buddy needs a favor for an employee. Turns out, the employee is a magical stripper named Veronica who's being stalked by her second cousin... who might or might not be a werewolf. And his Portland Police contact needs help with a killer who performed a Diabolical ritual sacrifice that reminds him a little TOO much of one of the more recent serious messes in his life... but it can't possibly be the same guy, since he took care of the last demon summoning, human sacrificing maniac by putting a bullet into his head. Which, as messed up as it sounds, is just another week for someone like him, a Venatorum, or Hunter, in a world where magic is hidden from the general populace and revealing it to someone is liable to get you killed.  Or worse! This story is a love letter to the Supernatural TV series, the Dresden Files, the Witcher, and a few of the Cultivator novels I enjoy, written in a Noir detective style.  Max, at this point in his life, is a lot like Harry Dresden at the start of the Dresden Files, or Dean and Sam at the start of the show, but he's a (very) weak Cultivator and Eastern-style Alchemist instead of a wizard. While he has some power, and some knowledge of the hidden world, he's really only touched the edges of it. The MC is smart, and no weakling, but he's a slightly less than medium sized fish in a pretty small pond who DOES know how small he is compared to the way bigger fish in the sea.  He succeeds by being smart, knowing his enemies, and being as prepared as he can be.