Dungeon Raider System

After the last message, it was as though the dungeon became alive. Light was made seemingly out of nowhere and distant noise of stone gears announced an entrance had opened somewhere. Then, Uriel was able to finally see his surroundings and realized it was some sort of terrarium.

The room was open and filled with vegetation, it looked like a perfect habitat for a creature such as the tortoise that, unfortunately, didn't make it after the air was sucked out. However, it was also clear it wasn't a natural ecosystem, snice the walls were made of glass, though it was impossible to see what lied beyond it because it was stained.

Uriel attempted to clean it, but his efforts didn't pay out and he turned his attention to the, now dead, tortoise next to him. It was a heavy looking creature, its skin was wrinkled, dry and old, but its face didn't look distressed in the slightest. It was as though the creature passed away peacefully in its sleep.

"Such a shame." Uriel heaved a regretful sigh gazing down at the carcass of what used to be a beautiful creature and then he sat to wait for the flux orb to drop, though after a few minutes he realized nothing was happening.

He didn't know if it was because it was a strong cryptid or if it was a regular animal, but in any case he couldn't bring himself to destroy the beautiful creature's remains in a gamble to get a flux orb he didn't feel he deserved.

After exiting the room, Uriel finally understood what was going on. He didn't enter the dungeon from the entrance but from a place where the security was more lax, which just happened to be one of the chambers with the purpose of keeping live animals.

Walking down the corridor he was able to see many chambers with different creatures living in them, acuatic birds, tortoises, turtles, even some aquariums with dolphins and manatees. It was a beautiful reservoir of living creatures and for a couple minutes Uriel wondered if they were really just regular animals and not cryptids.

Had it not been for his extensive studies in different cultures all over the world, he wouldn't have had the slightest idea about such strange animals and he might have confused with mythical beasts.

"I wonder if they're good to eat..." Uriel said as he looked at a shoal of swordfish inside one of the aquariums. It was one of the few species of fish Uriel knew by name, since many different cultures crafted swords out of their protruding upper jawbone.

At the end of the corridor, Uriel finally found the exit and he crossed the door only to find himself even more lost than before. It was as though he moved inside the dungeon mainframe, without being inside the actual dungeon. The corridor he was now traversing was narrow, but very tall, and instead of aquatic creatures the glass enclosures were filled with all sorts of birds.

Some of them were colorful, others were muted colors, but all of them were beautiful and they sang their beautiful songs while sitting on top of tree branches.

"What the hell is this unbearable noise!?" Uriel covered his ears and hurried over to the next area.

However, as soon as he took a step inside he noticed something was wrong. The lights were on, but it was impossible to see inside the enclosures. He leaned forward to see what kind of creature called those glass cages their home, only to realize that the place was empty.

There was no vegetation, no water, nothing inside the cages. Not just that, all the enclosures were surrounded by pictographs similar to those he found on the walls of the cave of the cannibals.

"On that day, the sons of god and the sons of men met under the sky," Uriel read out loud the first part, then stopped. "What is this place? It's like the 'behind the scenes' of a dungeon..."

Each step he took, allowed him to unveil a new piece of the story of the bellybutton of the world, but the more he read, the less sense everything made.

'The sons of god thought the daughters of men were beautiful and they took them as wives.'

'But their bodies were frail and they were unable to bear any offpsring.'

'Then, the sons of god made their women stronger by infusing them with...'

"This is weird, I don't know this word." Uriel muttered as he placed a hand on his chin, trying to rake his brain for an answer he knew would never come. After all, even thoughy his studies about the ancient language allowed him to theorize about its existence, deciphering it was only possible thanks to the system.

If there was a word he didn't know in his native language, it was impossible to translate it from the ancient glyphs. Continue reading stories on My Virtual Library Empire

[System notice] A small portion of the oath has been fulfilled.

Reward: 10 trites.

"Yes!" Uriel shouted in excitement. Although the reward was small, it was enough to buy some items from the souvenir shop. He was so thrilled about this he even forgot all about what he just read for a few seconds.

Before continuing his research, he entered his trait and bought a flashlight to help him read more comfortably, though as soon as he attempted to turn it on he realized there was truly something wrong in that place.

"Could this be broken?" He wondered as he tapped his new flashlight a couple times on the side trying to get it to work. "Or maybe..." A small drop of water fell on his shoulder and he instinctively tried to shake it off with his hand, though instead of the cool liquid he expected to find, it was warm to the touch and very sticky.

Uriel then craned up his neck upward, where a giant maw was already on its way to take a bite out of him.