Dungeon Raider System

Due to being restrained and blindfolded it was impossible for Uriel to see anything when they Magellan announced they found the entrance, but that wasn't Luna's case as they kept her in the front row as they assumed she was the archaeologist.

Contrary to Uriel's aggressive behavior, Luna remained calm at all times. That, along with her being short even for a regular human's standard and the fact that she was bound to a wheelchair made the Mapple employees assume she wasn't a threat in any capacity.

None of that could differ any further from the truth, but Luna didn't care to enlighten them, figuratively or with her trait and she just limited herself enjoying the privileges.

"Is it safe to go in?" Asked Magellan pointing at the groove where the leprechaun they were following disappeared to.

"No." Luna replied shortly.

"You got to give us more than that." The hunter who had been tasked with rolling Luna's wheelchair insisted, annoyed by her attitude. Needless to say, none of the Mapple corporation employees were having a good time and were running short on patience.

"Did you expect it to be safe? It's a dungeon. From my understanding, it's bound to be ridden with traps and cryptids." Luna said in the closest thing to a scoff she ever produced.

"Quit playing, you either talk or one of your friends die. It's that simple." Magellan said, unaware that he opened Luna's equivalent to Pandora's box. She started speaking about cryptids, not in a storytelling fashion but rather in a technical way.

She also spoke about hybrids, casually mentioning that dryads and treats were actually just regular people that mutated throughout the years and were able to produce cellulose inside their bodies. She then went in to compare it to redheads whom were capable of producing their own vitamin D, an adaptative evolution to being more vulnerable to temperature changes and sunlight.

"In a sense, redheads are more similar to cryptids than most hybrids. They have incredible abilities, such as resisting anesthesia and a wider pain threshold, but are so vulnerable to temperatures it could be argued it's their natural weakness."

"I couldn't care any less about redheads!" Magellan screamed like a drill sergeant after losing it completely. He was the angriest he had ever been in his life and it actually took him a full minute and the longest sigh he ever let out to calm down. "just tell us about the dungeon."

"How am I supposed to know? I'm not an archaeologist, he is." Luna said and pointed her delicate finger to Uriel who at that precise moment was being held against the ground by four hunters who prevented him from doing precisely what they wanted him to do, which was to examine the entrance.

"Release him." Magellan said, the calm of his face the complete opposite to his perturbed emotions.

"Are you sure? It took a lot of work to put him under control." The Mapple corp. employee gulped down when he received the confirmation.

Upon hearing he was going to be released Uriel stopped struggling and became still, which only added to their fear as he went from rabid to compliant in record time. The Mapple corp. employee released the reinforced alloy handcuffs on both his hands and feet, but didn't dare to remove the mouth gag as he feared Uriel would bite him.

"That's right, I'm the archaeologist," He said after dusting his clothes off and snatching his fedora from the hands of the undeserving hands of his captors. "and by the way, if you don't release her also Jon will be very pissed."

Uriel wasn't surprised when Magellan ignored him, especially since Medusa's trait was incredibly difficult to deal with, but he felt warning him was enough to 'cover his ass'. 'If Jon asks, I can honestly say I tried.' He thought.

With that out of the way Uriel was finally able to study the dungeon entrance and while the groove seemed way more inviting than the withering forest he had an uncanny feeling. It was a feeling he experienced in other dungeons before, or rather, in particular places near dungeons themselves. He watched as two curious hunters walked nearby the groove and he darted forward grabbing each from their backpacks and pulling them back with so much force they flew back twenty meters.

"Hold your fire." Magellan commanded when he noticed his men were all pointing his firearms towards Uriel. He didn't like him and the fact that he was stronger than his energy signature indicated also made him distrust him, but he was their only archaeologist and by holding Medusa and Luna hostage, Magellan felt he had the upper hand.

"This place is sacred and we need to fulfill certain conditions to enter. If we don't, we might activate traps or fail to activate the opening mechanisms." Uriel explained not out of kindness, but because he didn't want others to disrupt his research.

"Bring the religious symbols." Prompted by Magellan, a huntress showed up with a suitcase filled to the brim with trinkets realized from different materials. She then proceeded to take them out in turns, waving them around the air for a few seconds before carefully placing it back in their spot then trying a different one.

"You got crosses, ankhs, anchors, stars of David, and more. It's actually a pretty impressive collection." Uriel's eyes glimmered briefly, not in flux but out of greed. Some of them were made of valuable materials while others were made of iron or low value alloys, yet they all had one thing in common. "they're all original."

"They're not just original, they're artifacts I collected throughout my career." Magellan finally showed an emotion other than anger, but his proud face also included a frown which made it difficult to tell.

"Interesting, but they're all worthless. The religious aspect has little to do with the sacredness of a place. Mythology isn't much of a factor when you understand that dungeons are just ancient technology." Uriel said, now carrying a proud expression of his own, though the same as Magellan his face didn't shift enough to make a difference.

They looked like two cranky men in a pissing contest as they discussed about who was right, eventually reaching at the conclusion that the only thing that could end the argument was to prove it.

"I'll show you, but first. Nika!" Magellan flinched upon hearing her name and turned to Luna, but contrary to the explorer's expectation that she would show up in a flurry of kicks from her shadow, she actually appeared from Uriel's and with a never seen meek attitude.

"I'm here." She said.

"Bring as much cloth as you can from the Pegasus and a few sewing kits." Uriel's command was followed by Nika disappearing into his shadow without so much as looking around, then returned in less than a minute.

"Why didn't you call for reinforcements or even tell her you were captured?" Asked a perplexed Magellan.

"There's no good reason to fight among ourselves when we're cooperating just fine." Uriel shrugged and proceeded to sew the cloth into a hood with two holes for his eyes, then wore it.

"I didn't think of that." Luna commented.

"This is the place where the first Halloween was celebrated, the day where the supernatural veil is the weakest." Uriel explained.

"That's nonsense, Halloween passed a while ago." Magellan rebuked.

"This is not the time, but it's certainly the place. In the old tradition they covered their faces so the monsters and ghosts would recognize humans as monsters themselves and while we all know ghosts are not real, monsters are. It is fair to assume that there's some truth to the tradition and wearing masks should keep us safe from whatever lies inside." Uriel trying to sound professional wearing a makeshift mask made in a rush caused a wave of laughter that spread around. Some even openly mocked him for looking silly, but that all lasted only until Uriel walked inside the groove with complete confidence.

At that precise moment two rock figures that couldn't be described as anything other than monsters emerged from the ground and scanned him with red glimmering eyes, only to go back down without harming him.

"It makes sense now why the leprechauns are the only one who can enter the dungeon." Luna jotted down on her notepad as she now understood why their faces were disfigured, but Uriel could not hear or see anything that happened in the outside and the reason for that became evident with a welcomed system message.

[System notice] You are now entering the Samheim dungeon.

Not that the message announced something he couldn't tell with his own two eyes as just by stepping into the groove it was as though reality itself shifted. What looked from the outside as blackened trees with dry branches appeared as bountiful fruit bearing trees, the fruits being orange colored orbs that emitted light that could only be seen from inside the dungeon.

Uriel basked in the sight of a completely alien world until he noticed the rustling sounds of movement that alerted him he was not alone inside.