Dungeon Raider System

Uriel was immersed in a whirpool caused by an unspeakable evil, one that not only consumed its victim's body but also their sanity. Although he was moving at a fast speed, the trip towards his enemy's maw was long due to its size and also due to the fact that he was taking laps around it rather than falling directly onto them.

However, Uriel found himself in a confounded state. It was as though his own brain turned against him and instead of providing any useful ideas or strategies to save himself, all he could think about was to simply let go and let the beast swallow his existence.

That was precisely what he did. He stopped fighting against the powerful current, he remained still and his heartbeat settled which gave him the chance to finally hear his own thoughts, not that it was a good thing.

'Did I seriously expect Sam to come back for me after killing his son? Oh! No! What did I do!?' After many months of experiencing life through Water warlock's emotions, his previously empty heart was filled with remorse.

Deep down, Uriel knew that even if it was a vile creature, even if its mother was an absurd creature, it was still Sam's child the creature he killed.

At his lowest point, Uriel had already given up on his life and he didn't care for anything anymore. He was ready to swallow as much water as he could the next time he was submerged to make his death less painful than falling into the gigantic beast's maw, but other than that he had no plans.

Many other creatures were experiencing the same thing. Not just animals, other cryptids too. There were sea serpents of all sizes and colors, odd shaped creature that never before saw the light of day and also giant squids that couldn't possibly compare to the titanic monstrosity that was dragging everything into its maws.

As he was nearing the center of the whirlpool, Uriel closed his eyes and prepared himself for what was about to come, but somehow the end he was expecting never came. Instead, somehow he was lifted up in the air by someone he couldn't recognize because all he could see from his perspective was his backshadow.

Instead of heading to the nearest rock formation, the man took Uriel high in the sky.

"Sam! You came back!" Uriel exclaimed with emotion.

"Shut up, Conti, you'll want to see this." Manu replied.

Although he had been rescued, instead of grateful he was beyond distraught. He had already made peace with meeting his end, not because he was in a dire situation but because he deserved it. There was no point in saving someone who just didn't want to be saved and he was already thinking how he would end things after touching ground.

However, Uriel also couldn't fight against his curiosity and directed his gaze down to the sea where the 'rock formation' started closing in at the middle.

"Those aren't rocks! They're fangs!" Uriel gasped in amazement. Experience exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire

"Yes, Conti, now look somewhere else. You don't want to look at the creature's face."

"Why is that? What will happen if I do?"

"I don't know, no one has ever done so, but it's stated in my people's traditions that no one should do it." Manu took Uriel very high in the sky, but no matter how far they were, they were still able to hear the deafening sound of the waters parting when the creature emerged from the sea.

Manu kept flying for a while, until they finally reached the same entrance Uriel crossed to enter the nesting grounds.

"Why did you take me here?"

"There's no land other than the beast's fangs in that place. More importantly, did you do it?"

"Did I do what?"

"Did you destroy the egg?" When Manu asked this, Uriel's face crumpled and he couldn't hold up his tears anymore which Manu took as a signt that he did do it. Then, the rough unpolite hermit with less social skills than a sack of potatoes did the unthinkable. He hugged Uriel with both arms and wings. "Calm down, you did the right thing."

His breath was smelly and his beard itched on Uriel's cheek, but it was the closest thing to a fatherly hug he ever experienced which helped diminish the awkwardness. After a long while, Uriel finally calmed himself down and asked Manu the reason why he came to his rescue.

"I'm just fulfilling my duty. Now I'll help you get out of this place." Manu replied as the concealed door closed behind him. It was then, that Uriel figured that Manu must have known his way across the dungeon because he managed to find and open the concealed door, all on his own.

Then it finally dawned on him, why Manu was a hermit, why he helped him and also why he took his time before entering the dungeon.

"Your name isn't Manu, is it?" Uriel asked and a strange grin formed on the hermit's face.

"No, I'm the 'Manu Tara' or Bird man in your language."

"You're the actual bird man from the pictographs! You're the man who saved the short eared people!"

"Yes, I know what you've been through because the same happened to me before."

"But that must have been centuries ago!"

"Has it been so long? Sometimes it's hard to keep track of time," Manu muttered to himself. "The last time this sacred place opened, the same things happened. My people was kidnapped and brought to the cave, but we knew the meaning of this. Instead of remaining in that place, we visited the bellybutton of the world, the entered here and passed the trials.

Most of my men died but they were turned into the Moai and became our protectors, that's why I didn't want you to kill them, they were my friends in the past."

Now that he had all the pieces of the puzzle together, all Uriel had to do was to put them together.