Dungeon Raider System

Fate saw glimpses of Sam's future and it was brighter than the flash of light that burst out in the room. Everything from the moment he became a hunter to the current day was filled with victories that would have paved the road for humanity to become stronger. His achievements were as unlikely as they were stunning, leaving the goddess of fate the most shocked she had ever been.

"In all of my career I have never witnessed such potential, such a bright future. You were meant to be the greatest hero of them all. You were meant to lead humanity, to be the epitome of what being a human stands for. You were meant to become even greater than the gods!" She said with an expression that never before appeared on her face.

"Well, of course, I'm that awesome." Sam said with a smug smile directed towards his former friends.

"Are you sure it is not a mistake?" Medusa awkwardly asked.

"She means to say that he might be strong, but we can defeat him with a stick. Can you double check?" Luna asked.

"I will do more than that," Said Gertrude as she produced a black mirror out of thin air. and passed it on to Sam "this is a scrying mirror as ancient as I am. It is the strongest artifact I have ever come across and I will let you use it however you see fit."

"What does it do?" He asked and the answer appeared on the mirror, though Sam could feel that instead of a video recording it was more similar to a window to another reality.

"Just think of a particular time in your life as vividly as possible and it will show on the screen. But there's a catch..." Gertrude warned.

"Isn't there always?" Sam glared at Gertrude with sharp eyes.

"You can wish to insert yourself into that reality and you will travel backwards through the thread of fate and insert yourself into that reality and the best part is, no one but me will ever know. They will not forget what happened up until today, because that would have never happened." Gertrude words echoed in the library and by the point her words finally sunk in, it was impossible to stop Sam from activating the mirror.

****

Entering the fabric of fate was a new experience to Sam, yet it fell familiar as it was much similar to what happened after just crossing the threshold of a Dungeon. The laws of physic and logic bending all over was nothing new to him and he was able to navigate through fate with the same ease he browsed through the internet.

One thing that helped was that Sam possessed a very particular ability completely unrelated to his trait or hunting career. It was his eidetic memory which allowed him to remember everything to the smallest detail. Up until that point he considered it to be a curse, since he would remember the faces of cryptids that were unfathomably horrid and he had also witnessed otherwordly terrors in the night sky when he gazed at the night sky with his lightbringer trait one time. But now his photographic memory showed its true worth.

Fate's scrying mirror provided Sam the opportunity he had been waiting without even knowing it. The opportunity to get back all the things Uriel stole from him, his company, his achievements, even his friends. All of that belonged to him and him alone.

He started by looking at his current self and smiled at the sight of a luxurious tower with his name on it, screens displaying many products all of them advertised by him and people worshiping him in different ways. From statues in the streets to small figurines and merchandise, people fawned over anything that even depicted Sam and they showed signs of respect.

He then saw himself sitting in a broad chair in a meeting room, surrounded by beautiful women all dressed in revealing attires just how Sam liked them. Medusa's cleavage was stunning and both the original Sam and the one in the alternate reality could not take their eyes out of it, except to look at the rest of her body as she wore nothing but a bikini and a few leather straps in her thighs. But Luna didn't fall behind as she was now a dazzling beauty showcasing an hourglass figure, her breasts almost too large to be attractive. There were many other women in the room, all of which Uriel had met at some point in time and Sam had them all pining for him, yet it wasn't until Nika appeared from Sam's shadow that he felt tempted to insert himself into that particular point in time.

"Honey, come back to bed. We are waiting for you." Nika said wearing the slimmest set of lingerie that could ever exist. It was so thin if not for Sam's trait he may have believed the small pieces of cloth floated rather than hung on the strings. After a full minute where the only thing Sam could think of was of the implications of the use of the word 'we', he finally shook his head in the void of fate and composed himself.

In that reality he had richness, power, fame and the most beautiful and capable women Sam could wish for, but that was not enough.

Sam wanted to see Uriel, he wanted to see the pathetic face he made whenever he saw his picture. He wanted to see the pain in Uriel's eyes when seeing all the things he missed as it was the same suffering Sam endured for so long. Unfortunately for Sam, there were no signs of Uriel in the room and he could not go far from his other self.

'I bet he's living in the slums somewhere with the lowly scum like he deserves.' Sam inwardly thought as a smile crept to his face.

"Hey, pal! I have good news, I just defeated the Sphynx that blocked our way." Mark walked in holding a strange device Sam could not recognize in his hand.

"That's nice, but we're kind of working now." Alternate Sam said awkwardly.

"What's the matter? You're never too busy to play Dungeon Raiders online." Mark asked in shock.

"I'm just not feeling it today..."

"I guess we should leave." Medusa stood up and left the room, followed by the rest of the board leaving only Mark and Sam in the room.

"We're best friends, you know you can confide in me." Mark said as he poured whisky for them both.

"Have you ever felt that emptiness that won't go away no matter what you have, no matter what you do. Like you're missing something, but you don't even know what it is because it might not even exist."

"Duh, you're not a champion of humanity, you are The champion of humanity. You can have anything you want and you're telling me you're missing something?" Mark asked stunned.

"It's silly, right? I just sometimes wonder if it's all worth it, you know." Alternate Sam let out a sigh and that was all the original Sam needed to see to understand that he was not happy.

'I know exactly what would fill that emptiness... to see that fucker's face when...' Sam inwardly said as he thought of Uriel and was transported to his latest point in fate which surprisingly, was much earlier than he anticipated.

It was just after the skinwalker was defeated and Medusa had ended up terribly injured. She had a pierced lung and could barely breathe, but although the alternate Sam looked terribly worried the original Sam felt as if it was nothing but a scratch and pondered about a different matter.

He always thought Medusa to be this incredibly pretty girl from the moment he first saw her, but now she was just a scrawny kid with bad fashion taste, and the same happened with Luna. She had droopy eyes and a sleepy demeanor that made her look unappealing, he then saw himself and noticed all the imperfections in his face, his slightly crooked nose which he could only notice thanks to his trait, yet the worst came when he looked at Uriel.

He was skinny and had an emaciated look, not even with his Lightbringer trait could Sam spot his muscles, but his eyes were the same. Just seeing into Uriel's eyes Sam felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he instinctively thought he could see him, the real him.

"I have a pocket knife!" Uriel showed Luna his army knife and she began treating Medusa. Sam felt the temptation to look behind the curtains as no one would ever know, just out of curiosity as her now mature version far surpassed the old Medusa.

Everything went down just as Sam remembered it, from finding Atomic's body and Uriel stealing the tier 1 battery from the corpse, to Sam finding the smartphone. Yet what happened next left Sam in utter disbelief as the only thing that differed from what actually happened was that instead of giving the smartphone to Uriel, alternate Sam kept it to himself.