Dungeon Raider System

"I think you should try to use the ability." Nika proposed.

"There's a problem, in order to activate it I need to look at someone with 'lust' but that makes me really uncomfortable."

"Uhm, that's not a problem." Luna said as she started taking off her pajamas.

"We can help with that." Nika joined in and grabbed her shirt, but both of them were stopped by a swift bump to the head.

"You guys! Get a hold of yourselves!" Medusa was so angry Uriel thought he almost saw steam coming out form her head.

"I'll just enter my trait and see what's going on." Uriel closed his eyes and the scene in front of him shifted into his museum. At first sight everything seemed to be in place but then he realized the magazine wasn't the only missing item.

"Where's the snake plushie?" He muttered as he examined every single artifact he owned.

Fortunately, the placard on the magazine's pedestal was still there which he took as a sign that he didn't lose ownership of his artifact. However, he still thought it was better to summon all of his artifacts outside to prevent them from going missing.

One by one he started taking them out from his trait and formed a small pile in front of him.

"Wow! It always amazes me when you make things appear out of nowhere, it's like you're a magician!" Medusa said with a smile.

"Don't joke around with witchcraft!" Nika crossed herself thrice.

"Why did you take everything out?"

"Whatever the thing inside my museum is, it stole the magazine and the snake plushie. I don't intend on letting it take anything else, you wouldn't believe how expensive Thunderbolt Iron was."

"I know that you don't want to risk losing your stuff, but I don't think that's the best approach. If you really want to find out what's going on, maybe it'd be better if you leave something behind as bait and wait to catch the culprit by surprise."

"You just don't know the value of money, besides, I'm really fond of my artifacts. After all I've been through with them, they hold sentimental value."

"Pffft, sentimental, you? Don't make me laugh." Nika said mockingly.

"Don't say stuff like that, he's the sweetest guy I know." Medusa flared up. She didn't take insults to Uriel lightly, not after all he had done for her, but that caused them to fall into a heated argument about his character.

Realizing he had no place in that discussion, he walked out of the room and headed downstairs where Janett kept herself busy by sweeping the floor. Although she belonged to the Dungeon Raiders company she didn't live in the headquarters, but she showed up early for work everyday. Of course, since the company was too small there wasn't any work for her besides running errands or cleaning the place.

"Good morning boss!" She said with a fake smile, the kind Uriel was able to pick up immediately because of his past experiences.

"What's wrong?"

"Huh? Nothing, I'm just having a hard time adjusting. That's all."

Uriel knew something was off about her, but he dismissed it not only because he was currently busy with his own issues but also because he didn't care about her. He knew that she was technically his employee, thinking rationally he had to care about her but his emotions didn't follow.

That was precisely what troubled him, the fact that he felt like a different person from who he was before. He wasn't a pushover anymore and instead of having difficulties confronting people he actually enjoyed it, but he also lost a part of himself.

When Medusa jumped to defend him he realized that he wasn't who she thought he was anymore. Whatever it was that she saw in him, was no longer there.

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To make things worse, he used to have strong feelings for her and whenever he saw her he was giddy and excited, but those feelings started fading the minute he came back from Chichén Itzá and completely vanished after she used her petrifying glare on him.

"That's it!" He ran back towards the living room and found out the fight had ended and the girls were waiting for him to return.

"In case you want to know, we agreed that you're a jerk, but you're our jerk." Nika explained.

"Medusa, I'd like you to use your petrifying glare on me again." Uriel ignored Nika altogether.

"Are you sure? Last time you gave me the silent treatment for weeks and you still flinch whenever I enter a room unannounced. Even now you're not looking me in the eye." Medusa said with a sad smile on her face.

"I'm sorry about that, I know you're hurting and it's all my fault. But this time things will be different because I think I figured out what happened."

"I know what happened already, my trait causes paralysis by poking into the victim's most inner fears. It's really difficult to recover from that."

"Not really, it didn't affect me that much when you used it on me." Luna argued.

"That was after I just recently acquired my trait and you were of my same rank. My trait is way stronger now to the point it can affect Heavenly rank hunters and entity level cryptids alike."

"I think something different happened when you used it on me," Uriel started speaking but then fell silent. Telling them about Water warlock was the same as opening the proverbial can of worms and he knew it, but there was no point in keeping it a secret from the people he knew he trusted even though he didn't actually feel it. "After Chichén Itzá I came back different.

I knew how I was supposed to feel about different things, but feelings and emotions felt distant. I tried acting the same way as before but I didn't feel the same and I know you all have noticed it. I blamed it on post traumatic stress, but now I realized it's something entirely different."

"You always talk about that place, but you've never told us what happened there." Medusa said under her breath.

"I'll tell you what happened in there. I died for the first time."