Dungeon Raider System

The long walk across a seemingly endless cave system ended up being way more difficult than Uriel initially expected. Exploring a place like that may seem boring or easy, but it was none of those things. The path went up and down, it was covered with all sorts of obstacles like rocks and speleothems, but the hardest obstacle arose when the way became narrow.

It forced them to either break the rock and make way or try to slide inside hoping not to become trapped in the stone.

Although Uriel was an ascended, he was still having difficulties to keep up with Sam who was a heavenly rank already and he was also in way better physical shape than Uriel.

"Since when did you get so fit?" Uriel said with a jagged breath after taking a break for the umptenth time.

"It just happened. I guess I should be thankful for my trait. Hey, would you mind if we did that thing again?"

"That thing? Oh! you mean checking your status? sure." Uriel took out his smartphone and handed it to Sam whose face became lit by the bright screen, but then a strange expression appeared on his face which prompted Uriel to ask him what was that about.

"It's nothing, I kind of knew it already but it seems I have a skill now. It's some sort of physical boost."

"Do you remember when you hated your trait and cried yourself to sleep everyday?"

"Stop it, I don't mock you for your past as a bottom feeder."

"I wasn't trying to make fun of you, I just wanted to point out how far you've come." Uriel explained himself.

"Stop it already. You can be so patronizing some times."

"I..." Uriel didn't know how to reply, every word that came out of his mouth seemed to bother Sam even further.

"I'm sorry, I'm just kind of anxious. You know what they said about the Air spirit people? That they're evil!"

When Sam mentioned the Air spirit people everything became clear to Uriel. The reason why Sam was on edge, why he was in a hurry to find the entrance to the dungeon and it also explained why he fought so hard against the cannibals.

"Well, they did release the Aku Aku."

"Are you on their side too!?" Sam's eyes gleamed in bright yellow, a clear sign of a hunter being angry.

"I'm not saying they're evil, just pointing out a fact. Maybe they did it out of need or it was an accident, we don't know that yet."

Sam was acting strange, but that was a given since, apparently, he had a knack for drawing strange people close to him. Medusa, Nika, Luna, even Amy and Charlie, they were all odd people even by hunter's standards, of course Sam couldn't be an exception. Experience exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire

"I see something," Sam said as he darted across the dark corridor until he reached a wall. "what does it say?"

"How do you expect me to know, It's pitch black," Uriel hurriedly lit up the tallow torch he took from the cannibals and as soon as light was made he was able to see a strange rock formation. "Interesting, the one in the middle is round, but it's not perfect. It's almost like an earth globe."

"It isn't almost like an earth globe, it's an exact replica." Sam confirmed thanks to his eidetic memory.

"Then what do these four stones mean?" The tones Uriel referred to were four stones of odd shapes located on the four sides of the globe. Had it been just one he would have assumed it was a representation of the moon, but it didn't make sense that there were four of them.

"Who cares about that? Look at the carvings and read what it says."

"Carvings? What carvings?"

"Geez!" Unable to wait any longer, Sam snatched the torch from his hand and pointed it to the ground revealing a circle carved in the rocky stone of the cave made entirely by ancient glyphs.

"It says: 'This is the center of the world, the place where all comes from and the place where everything goes after death. Every road, every path, every island, every current, every sky, every...'" Uriel wanted to continue reading, but Sam cut him short.

"I got it, the list goes on, just skip until it gets interesting." He said moving his hand in a circular manner to hurry him.

"Alright, let's see... here it is. Hmmm, the four rocks represent the the earth, the sky and the ocean."

"What about the fourth one?" Sam asked.

"I don't know, it's not specified, apparently, it represents the belly button of the world. It seem they can be activated, but I don't know how."

"That's easy." Sam said as he touched the stone that represented the belly button of the world and channeled flux into it. The stone didn't change in any way, but the globe lit up in bright colors and a blue dot appeared right where Easter Island was located.

"That was pretty cool. How did you know that was going to work?"

"I can see everything, remember? There's some orichalcum mixed in the stone which meant it can channel flux." Sam replied, obviously proud of himself.

"Hang on a second, then it means it's actually a machine!" Uriel's mind was blown up by the confirmation that the ancient technology was just that, technology.

Up until that point he always had the theory that all the amazing effects of the structures surrounding a dungeon and even the dungeons themselves were the product of the technology crafted by an advanced civilization, but it was just that, a theory.

There were other explanation that, although less scientific, were just as likely. For example, magic. Magic could have explained a great deal of what was going on in dungeons, but at the ame time it didn't provide any actual knowledge. If, instead, it was actually forgotten technology, it meant that they could potentially replicate it.

"I call dibs on the discovery!"