Dungeon Raider System

The banshee scream caused all the hunters who didn't cover their ears in time to partially lose their hearing. Blood dripped through their ears and although no one was directly attacked, some of the hunters were completely disabled and couldn't move anymore. They couldn't tell what was wrong with their bodies, but they couldn't so much as stand up or walk without tripping.

According to the medics who studied their symptoms it was due to their middle ear being destroyed, but Luna suspected it wasn't so simple. It wasn't jut the vibration of the sound what caused the damage, but the flux that empowered the scream. As usual, her suspicions were confirmed when after the banshee vanished all the hunters affected by this strange condition suddenly became healthy again.

Luna noted this and added those details to her research which had gotten a long way from a hundred pages of 'maybes' to a healthy bestiary with specific descriptions of cryptids and their confirmed abilities.

The dungeon of Samheim was rapidly turning into their most profitable expedition so far as they acquired dozens of beast level flux orbs, accurate information about cryptids and Medusa had also taken the chance to examine the traps which gave her plenty of new ideas for new devices.

On his side, Uriel hd yet to make any breakthroughs other than figuring out the need for masks to enter the sacred grounds of the Samheim, but that was only because they had yet to reach the main building.

But things weren't going so well for Magellan who had lost half of his expedition members due to mistakes that could have been prevented easily had he just listened to what Luna and the others had to say. The worst part being that he was fully aware of this fact and yet his pride didn't let him ask for help.

"We're here." Announced Uriel as he stood before the stony gates that could only be seen from inside the dungeon.

"What now?" Asked Magellan having a hard time pretending he was still the leader of the expedition when his contributions amounted to needlessly wasting lives.

"One of the most ancient traditions of the Halloween is the 'trick or treat', but there's a problem."

"I'm shocked." Nika sarcastically remarked.

"This area was populated by druids which were known for being a benign culture with a peace loving history, at least when left alone. This is a fact that Rome understood well and they never annexed the Hibberia, which is how Ireland was called by them."

"That doesn't sound too bad, so what are you not telling us." Nika asked, knowing that she would not like what came next.

"Before the arrival there were many discoveries of human remains with... teeth marks."

"Why is it always cannibalism!?" Medusa clenched her fists, unsure if she wanted to proceed.

"And most of the remains found were of... children." Uriel said the last part expecting disgusted expressions from all over the place, but those present were actually relieved as all of them were adults.

"I know you don't like kids, but If you're proposing that we fetch a child and..." Nika broke the eerie silence that formed.

"I would never! Kids are mean little bastards, but they're innocent. Ignorant, but innocent. But the thing is, the trick or treating tradition is pretty simple. Halloween is the day where the veil that separates dungeons from reality is the thinnest and monsters take that chance to go to the houses nearby and ask for tribute. If refused, they take their tribute anyway. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"This is exactly what I feared, valuables or blood, the price must be paid to enter the dungeon. There is no way around it." Luna commented, and though she was regretful, she sounded emotionless as always.

Knowing what they now knew it came as no surprise that the gates of the building were disproportionately large hinting that they were realized to accommodate something that wasn't human, probably what the druids of the old times thought was a god. But whether or not the creature was a god or not made little difference to Uriel as wasn't intending on waking up whatever lied inside that accursed building.

The doors opened immediately when they approached it and by each side of the door were two basins with an inscription below only Uriel was able to read. The one in the left read 'trick' and the one in the right read 'treat', meaning the former was meant for blood and the latter for gold.

"It is very important that each person who enters the building leaves a piece of gold in the container to the right and that no one, for any reason, spills blood." Uriel said before placing a trite on the basin and though the ancient coins were made of electrum, its gold content was enough for the basin to greedily accept it and make it vanish in the air.

Medusa, Nika and Luna had trites of their own, though the hunter who acted as Luna's begrudging assistant didn't which prompted Uriel to hand him two trites.

"One for the basin, one for you." Needless to say, it wasn't out of generosity but rather a form of payment for his service. The man seemed confused by accepted it nonetheless and walked inside the ominous building pushing Luna's wheelchair.

Magellan was sick and tired of asking what to do and decided to follow on Uriel's footsteps not wanting to be set aside for the best part of the expedition, the part where the artifacts and treasures were uncovered and split. However, despite each and every one of the Mapple corporation employees being considered wealthy by a regular hunter's standards, few of them had anything made of gold.

The woman who carried the suitcase with religious symbols gave each of the strongest members of the expeditionary party the few that were made of gold, which including Magellan meant only six of them could enter.

Upon crossing to the other side lights dimmed in their lanterns making it seem as though the lanterns were about to die when in fact they were completely fine. It was just that inside the building light itself was weaker, though the only two people who noticed it were Nika and Luna.

The nature of their traits, albeit opposite, was tightly related to the same phenomenon which was light itself and even though Nika's trait was more developed than Luna's, both of them felt the pressure the same.

"I don't think the being in here is friendly." Nika muttered before gulping down saliva. Uriel looked her way with something that resembled pity, but it may as well been just her imagination as he also seemed excited to explore the inside the dungeon.

"Got one here," Medusa announced in front of an oddly shaped tile in the ground. "I think it's a button connected to a trap, but it may open a door or something."

"Let me see," Uriel pushed her aside looking for carvings, unable to find any. It was just a circular pattern that enveloped itself in and on itself, something he recognized as a holy symbol in the druid tradition. "this means protection, I think. But if people bothered keeping this symbol alive in tradition, it shouldn't be bad."

"You think?" Nika tilted her head.

"It's a gamble." Uriel shrugged, unsure if he wanted to activate a mechanism lying in the middle of nowhere.

But that decision was taken from him the moment Luna's wheelchair was pushed right into the mechanism, pressing it for a brief moment and causing the grinding of unseen gears Uriel was accustomed to. Being a pessimist, Uriel braced himself for a trap while Medusa scanned her surroundings looking for an opening and they were both left disappointed.

"I heard something over there." Luna pointed at what seemed a random direction, though she was pinpointing the exact location where they found a different symbol.

"I know this one too, it means life." Uriel pondered before dropping a flare and asking the others to look for more symbols eventually finding a total of fourty five different symbols.

"Don't leave us hanging, tell us what they say!" Nika poked at Uriel's ribs trying to shake him from his pensive state and that is when things took a different turn than the usual translation.

"They don't say anything. This isn't the ancient language, there are actual druid symbols and I wish I could tell you what they say, but I don't have photographic memory. I just remember a few of them."

"Kobold, dragon, faerie folk, guardian, some of these symbols mean creatures." Luna said, her assistant breathing heavily after she forced him to take a few laps around the huge circle of symbols.

"And I recognize some of these symbols too, not because they mean anything but rather because they look exactly like circuits and wires." Medusa said.

"I think this one is a bird." Nika's remark was swiftly disregarded by everyone like usual.

"I think we should stay away from the ones marked with cryptids and the ones that resemble circuits, but we could try the ones with cultural significance as they were probably passed on with a purpose." Uriel explained.

"What about Nika?" Asked medusa with concern.

"Give her a coloring book or something." Uriel grumbled as he turned to examine the symbols.