Dungeon Raider System

Saying goodbye to her friends on the Pegasus was the hardest thing Medusa had to do in her entire life and that made her happy she skipped that part in America. As much as it pained her, abandoning the ship was something necessary to keep them safe from the grasp of the Mapple corporation. Before parting she made sure to update the zeppelin as best she could, even going as far as to add a frontal plasma cannon so powerful it could take out a horror level cryptid in a single shot. Or so she hoped because there was no way of putting that to the test without risking the entire ship and crew.

Feeling betrayed once more, Miss Dragonfang gave the go for takeoff and though the crew loved Medusa, no one so much as waved goodbye at her.

"It's fine, I deserve this." She lowered her face dejectedly.

"Don't worry about that, you'll see them again, I'm sure." Jon tried to cheer her up, but that only managed to increase her worries that there might not be a next time. After all, with cryptids scouring the land and skies all over the planet, it was difficult to tell when would be the last time you saw your friends.

Medusa took a minute to think about her friends back in America, wondering how would they react when finding out she left. It wasn't completely out of the blue as it was something that was bound to happen some time.

"I bet Uriel will be angry, Nika will probably be annoyed, but Luna won't even notice." Medusa chuckled.

The Mapple corporation employees lined up to greet the holy rank hunter and the two women that showed up with him. Seiren was well known in the headquarters as her ability to tell when someone was lying made her one of the most dangerous employees the Mapple corp. possessed, but the other woman was a mystery.

Medusa was not just tall, she seemed to be from a completely different species. It was as though everything about her was chiseled by the expert hands of an ancient Greek artist. Her body proportion was not just alluring, it was the fuel that fed fantasy in men and women alike.

But for all her beauty, she was not actually perfect because she was blind. Not that it took anything from her luscious curves and daring attire but the opposite. Even the ugliest Mapple employee thought they had a shot with her, or at least that they could ogle her unpunished.

"We're here to see the old man." Jon said to the highest rank employee that showed up.

"Of course." The man bowed politely towards Jon, yet he didn't stop staring at Medusa's cleavage for one second.

"Keep your eyes where they belong or I'll take them as souvenirs." Medusa grunted, feeling the many stares fixated on her body dissipate instanlty.

"Well done, I was just about to step in." Jon said.

"Yeah, you were." Seiren heaved sarcastically as Jon himself was too preoccupied with her cleavage.

The walk to Walter's room was done in solemn silence as they expected the man to be on his death bed. Great was their surprise when Walter answered the door himself and received them with a long hug.

"Winnie! You really came!" Walter said wiping tears off his eyes.

"Grampa! You're fine!" Medusa said with a mix of outrage and relief.

"I'm sorry for lying to you, but it was the only way I thought could bring you back to me and it worked." Walter said shamelessly.

"I... my friends..." Medusa was too shocked to reply and she looked for a chair to sit.

Walter didn't miss how Medusa was blind yet still found the chair with ease, which prompted him to continue. "And I think it was the perfect timing for several reasons."

After an exquisite dinner where Walter had a chance to catch up to her niece and Jon to bask in the sight of Seiren dressed in a tight red dress which contrasted heavily with her accustomed denim pants and loose shirt, it was finally time to talk about serious matters.

Walter explained how the Mapple corporation had fallen completely under his son in law's control, meaning Medusa's father now had a lot more power in the corporation than when he tried to have her killed. They discussed several possibilities to fix the situation, though the only thing Jon could put on the table was to kill him and that was something neither Walter nor Medusa wanted to do.

Besides, with so many security division employees it was bound to be an impossible task even for a holy rank hunter.

They came up with the idea of finding powerful artifacts under the guise of protecting humanity, though it as actually a move to weaken their security and find weak spots in their security network. But for that to work, Medusa would need to join the corporation using her real name and climb up the corporate ladder properly. That would not only keep her father content, but also provide them access to the inner workings of the corporation.

"What about me?" Jon asked after taking a long gulp of whiskey followed by another for good measure.

"You'll also join them, after all, who would turn down the help of the world's most renowned archaeologist." Walter playing Jon like a fiddle made Medusa chuckle, until she noticed she too was being manipulated by her grandfather.

It was subtle and under the excuse that he missed his granddaughter, but maybe due to spending so much time near Uriel who was a paranoid overthinker her naivety was a matter of the past, though she wished she wished she never noticed.

From that moment on she felt her stay at the Mapple corporation was the same as imprisonment. Her every move was under deep scrutiny and not a minute went by without people looking at her for whatever reason. She could feel the energy signature of those around her and she could also tell some of them apart due to their distinctive smells, voices and even the way they walked, but that wasn't always the case.

Despite all that, Medusa played along and started from the bottom of the company like her grandfather suggested. The first tasks handed to her were as meaningless as they were below her position as a member of the Works family, from greeting unimportant people at the door to sweeping the floors, something she hardly ever did before.

That kind of mind numbing tasks were akin to torture to a heavenly rank hunter like Medusa, but it came with the unexpected advantage of allowing her some time to think. It was the first time in ages where she had time to herself and she reflected about her trait, her relationship with her friends and her past deeds.

Particularly the outcome of her brief encounter with a holy rank hunter in Madrid that ended up becoming a stone statue despite their difference in power.

Pondering about such mysteries, Medusa had a break through. One that would have never been possible if not for the many stares directed at her on a daily basis and that would make no sense for someone with a trait different than hers.

Due to her trait being linked to her eyes, her entire brain was wired in a fashion that allowed her to understand eyesight in a way no one but she alone could. Her understanding didn't come from a biological standpoint about the inner workings of the optical nerve and the retina, but from the relationship between the eyes and the soul itself.

She understood that whenever the pupil opened to let light in through the eye, something also came out. It was faint and only perceivable by hunters, but it was there and thanks to all the free time she had to focus on her trait she finally arrived at the conclusion that would lead her to control her trait for the first time since she became a huntress.

"It's just like Uriel said and my name could not be more fitting, but it's not looking at my body what caused people to turn into stone, but looking into my soul," Medusa finally understood why her trait was so fickle and affected people in different ways. "but that also means that whoever looks at me, at my true self, is destined to die."

With the sudden understanding of her trait, Medusa took off the blindfold in the middle of the day at the center of the Mapple corporation hall where dozens of peoples walked around in their busy day unaware of the danger that came with such an innocent action.

She opened her eyes and couldn't help but look at the daylight that breached the front windows paying little attention to the people entering the building, then a smile formed in her beautiful face when she noticed how her trait was not active and would never again be active unless she wished it so because now she had closed her heart to the world.

In order to control her trait, Medusa had given up on the love she had for her grandfather, for uncle Jon, for her friends, for Uriel and even for the rest of humanity.