Dungeon Raider System

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The cave went all the way down to the sea and it seemed like a dead end, but after reading the pictographs on the walls Uriel knew there was something ominous hiding behind the walls. If it wasn't for his flashlight, he might have missed that a small portion of the drawings covered something that seemed even older.

He tried scrubbing it with his hands, but the paint was stuck and he was left with no choice but to search in the catalog of his souvenir shop and find the proper tools.

Given that the painting was from the ancient times, Uriel knew that using paint thinner would most likely be useless as the paint they used was probably crafted with natural resources such as squid ink, charcoal, different kinds of dirt and even metals.

Besides, he wanted to keep the damage done to such an important cultural remain at a minimal, so he bought several tools commonly used in archaeology.

Chisels, trowels, brushes and even other tools like a magnifying glass. Each of the tools was costly, but he didn't have a mind to think of the price. By claiming ownership of the dungeon, his prospect of earnings promised to be infinitely superior to whatever he spent to uncover the entrance.

There was also the matter of his friends being trapped in a horrible place, but when in front of such a mystery he was in tunnel vision mode and all he could see was the task at hand.

Little by little, he scraped the wall with the chisel, then he gently stroke the surface with a brush to clear the dust and he was greeted by an ancient glyph that read a single word 'more'.

"More what?" Uriel said confounded. He looked around trying to find any other glyphs, without any luck but once his mind cooled off he finally understood the meaning behind it. Although dungeons were made of an indestructible material, that wasn't the case for each and every part of them and he figured he had nothing to lose by breaking it.

He could have easily broken the stone with his bare fists, but he needed precision, not power. He grabbed a small pick and started hitting the glyph in a soft but repetitive manner until the stone gave way to another glyph spelling the same word. He repeated the process over and over, until his hand could barely reach the last one.

Left with no choice, Uriel put his hand inside the hole and groped all over trying to break the final glyph with his fingers which was a difficult task even for an ascended like himself. He could feel the stone cracking under his relentless effort, then small chunks came out of it. He then tried to pull back his hand to see what was revealed on the hole he dug, only to realize his hand was stuck.

That would have been bad enough, but once the tickling sensation began crawling all the way to his elbow he realized what a grave mistake he made.

"Bugs!" He shouted and then screamed an unintelligible stream of curse words as the beetles, ladybugs, crickets and even ants all crawled up his arm threatening to cover it entirely. "Manu! Manu, help me!" Uriel shouted as he struggled to pull back his hand while at the same time patting down his body trying to take off of him imaginary insects, but Manu couldn't or wouldn't reply.

Left to his own devices, Uriel did the only thing any sane person in his circumstances would have done. He summoned his pocket knife and cut off his arm in a single clean slash letting out a roar that resembled that of a wild beast.

Kneeling and panting, Uriel looked at the place where his arm used to be and watched how the gashing wound closed on its own and a stump began forming. It was the first time Uriel looked at his own regenerative process and he wondered if it had always been so fast or if it was due to the blessing becoming stronger.

"That doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is..." Uriel said as he pointed the flashlight inside the hole. All the disgusting insects that were devouring the disembodied arm that was still trapped in the hole flinched when the flashlight was pointing at them, but he was still unable to see anything.

He gulped down his saliva and proceeded to remove the insect ridden arm and dropped it on the ground, allowing him to finally see what lied at the end of the hole.

Much to Uriel's dismay, it seemed to be a complex mechanism that looked like a lever that needed to be pulled and then twisted. For a good minute he thought of buying a hook or something that would spare him from putting his hand inside that revolting hole again, but then he realized he was just trying to escape reality.

With only one arm left, he knew that should his arm be trapped again he would be absolutely trapped in there with an endless stream of insects constantly eating his arm that would keep renegerating until his other arm grew back. However, that lever was the only thing keeping him away from his friends and he figured it was worth the sacrifice.

He placed his trembling hand inside the foul hole, trying his best to ignore prickling sensation of the many disgusting limbs poking him and proceeded to activate the mechanism. Finally, unseen stone gears began spinning and he pulled his hand away, only for them to stop mid way.

"Dammit!" He cursed and proceeded to repeat the same thing, only now he left his hand twisting the lever until the gears finished their mechanical dance and a trapdoor was revealed at a distance. Then, as he retreated his hand, the trapdoor began closing. Unsurprised by this, Uriel twisted the lever once more, but before letting go he activated Dash and ran into the dark pit that opened.