Dungeon Raider System

By the time Jon managed to catch up with the Pegasus he was running for dear life as he was being chased after by all kinds of cryptids due to his 'juicy' energy signature.

"Nothing like falling from the skies and taking a stroll across the cryptid infested wilderness to sober up," Then he smiled and continued to shock them all. "also, I think I just passed another trial."

"What did the revelation said!?"

"It said I survived a god's attempt to kill me." Jon replied casually, unwittingly triggering Uriel's excitement as he was provided with the single most revealing piece of information that could answer many of his questions.

Rather than discussing it in front of everyone, Uriel asked them to leave and let him rest which Luna thought weird because although his wounds looked serious and he also did not receive any pain medication, his pain tolerance was on another level and he should have been able to stand up and carry on with his day despite the burns.

In order to confirm his suspicion, Uriel entered his trait where he found Nika in the modern exhibition. She was in the opposite corner to where the mummies Uriel had collected and did not take her eyes out of them as though she expected them to suddenly stand up and move on their own.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to take a nap." Although she could not see Uriel, she could feel his presence when he entered his own trait.

"Yeah, but, why here of all places? I thought you were scared of mummies."

"That's why I need to stay here, because at least I'll know if any of those things becomes alive." She replied as though it was obvious.

"It doesn't work that way." Uriel sighed and proceeded to use his smartphone which was the reason why he entered his trait in the first place. Summoning his smartphone and using it in bed would have been faster, but not while covered in bandages and also, if his suspicions were true he could not let anyone take a peek of what he was about to do.

He opened the system app and looked at his stats, confirming once more that each of them had reached its limit. Each stat being capped at a hundred let Uriel know that they were a percentage, probably of the top performance he could achieve with his body after training.

That meant that no matter how hard he trained now he could not become any stronger or faster, at least until he ranked up, though he wasn't in a rush to become a holy rank hunter. For starters, the price to pay was incredibly high with the requirement being absorbing the souls of practically a city. Killing innocents was completely out of the question while being in close proximity to that amount of people dying could only be achieved if he placed himself under the same threat.

The workaround was to kill a holy rank hunter, but that gave place to the second reason why Uriel didn't want to rank up and it was that, although becoming stronger was attractive, that would render him unable to set foot out of a megacity or a sealed vessel such as the Pegasus. Holy rank hunters were practically cryptid magnets and if Uriel was to become one, his sole existence would put everyone he cared about in danger.

After careful consideration about these matters, Uriel tapped on the system app and toyed with it for a while, trying to see if there was anything he missed about the app. Needless to say, with all the time he had spent tinkering with the app it was more than unlikely but Jon's comment had made him realize something.

"Holy trowels!" He couldn't help but speak aloud.

"It wasn't me, I swear! I didn't touch anything." Nika said after slowly putting the lewd magazine where it belonged.

"I've been receiving revelations for a while now!"

"As in, you're a prophet?" Uriel usually made little sense, but this got Nika more confused than the usual.

"Take a look at the screen." Uriel showed her the list of 'achievements' he had been unlocking from the moment Sam gifted him that cellphone. At first he thought it was some kind of joke software designed to mock the user, then he thought it could be an artificial intelligence, though for some reason those were heavily outlawed after the arrival. Each of the trials felt offensive to Uriel, some more than others, especially since he didn't know where did they come from.

Of all the mysteries Uriel had stumbled upon since the moment he became a hunter, the one that caused him most trouble was the system. It had the ability to pinpoint exactly how strong he was, to recognize abstract concepts such as stealing and vague objectives. It was as though a sentient being lived inside his smartphone, but that could not be the case.

"So, you're saying that a god went out of their way to call you a... let's see... hopeless virgin?" Nika couldn't help letting out a chuckle that soon turned into hysterical laughter as she saw the rest.

"Yeah, laugh all you want. I'm pretty sure these come from a god."

"The god of sass?" Nika managed to say before spitting in laughter.

"I knew discussing this with you was a bad idea, I should have asked Medusa." Uriel sighed exaggeratedly.

"I can be of help," Nika put on her game face and stood upright, not realizing Uriel's comment had been a successful manipulation. "revelations are the gods trying to communicating with humans, correct?"

"By definition, yes."

"Then what is this god trying to tell you?"

"Good question," Uriel pondered. "to me it feels like the system wants to put me down. It's like it takes any chance it can to take a dig at my character." Uriel replied.

"I didn't even get to see the entire list, but I can tell you you're wrong. I don't have a fancy degree like you and I'm not obsessed with a subject like Luna, but I grew up in a religious family. If there is one thing I can tell you is that what seems to be the right thing to do for us humans, is sometimes wrong in the eyes of the gods."

"Like, how..."

"Look, if there was a god of thieves..."

"Hermes." Uriel informed.

"This hermes guy will favor whoever steals, but stealing is morally wrong. The same goes for the god of war, who will consider killing another human as a moral thing as long as they're on opposite sides."

"So, what you're saying is I should make a comparative analysis about the titles that appeared on my system and extrapolate the information against what is known about the gods!? Nika, you're a genius!" Uriel said in excitement as he exited his museum, realizing too late that he was not where he was supposed to be. He was still in the medical bed, but it was moved to the cargo bay by Luna who waited patiently for him to recover his consciousness.

"You're back, finally." Luna nodded.

"What are we doing here?"

"We brought you here to put a theory to the test." Medusa explained.

Other than the aforementioned the cargo bay was empty and the door was open which was all Uriel needed to understand the situation. They wanted him to go out and see if another lighting would strike him. It was an experiment, one where Uriel played the reluctant role of the guinea pig. However, he too needed to confirm if it would be safe for him to go out and he did what was expected of him.

However, before setting foot outside the ship Uriel activated Dash and braced himself as he would not be caught off guard again. This time nothing happened, or so Uriel thought, because Nika came out of her trait to look for something in particular.

"Yeah, it's slow, but clouds are gathering." Nika said and then Luna sentenced the conclusion she arrived to with the information gathered.

"This is the worst case scenario, Uriel, this is not caused by a sentient being. You have been cursed."

"Cursed? What kind of curse? How can you be sure?"

"Curses are part of my field of expertise... well, not really, but I've faced them before. They are just like a sickness, but they can cause any sort of symptom. Like in Miss Dragonfang's case."

"She's cursed!?" Medusa's mouth gaped.

"Well, isn't it obvious? She has to be the unluckiest person in this ship, safe for Uriel that is." Luna replied.

"This sounds made up." Uriel grunted, not because he doubted Luna but because he really didn't want the idea of being afflicted by a curse.

"You could always take a step outside and see if the same result does repeat or not." Luna said.

"Don't we have an expert on curses aboard this ship!?" Medusa said.

"Not her, please..." Uriel took a step back which painted a pitiful picture considering how he was still wounded and covered in bandages.

"I'm afraid I concur with Medusa, while I can treat the consequences of a curse, I can't do anything to remove them. We should consult the expert."