Dungeon Raider System

It was never unusual for the Dungeon Raiders to bump into a problem they couldn't solve on their own. Sometimes Medusa needed someone to help her decide on the aesthetics of her gadgets, More often than not Nika would need guidance to make business choices and Luna always needed help with her research, and whenever that happened they always knew they could rely on Uriel.

The opposite was also true, though Uriel was accustomed to doing things on his own and rarely asked for help.

It was his friends the ones who always offered assistance rather than him asking, but on this particular occasion Uriel wished he had someone he could ask to peek into Nika's drawer instead of him and unfortunately for Uriel, he knew Miss Dragonfang wouldn't spare him the embarrassment even if he asked nicely.

Miss Dragonfang understood the situation as soon as she saw his conflicted face. It was clear to her that he already reached the end of the thread, but in order to find the message they left for him he needed to open Nika's first drawer on purpose.

Given by how conflicted he looked, she also understood that this was most likely something very important he needed to do, which kept her from laughing to avoid getting kicked out.

Hesitantly, Uriel placed his hands on the drawer handle, trying to delay opening it for as long as he could. Many young men would have killed to do what Uriel was about to do, considering it more of a lifetime opportunity than an embarrassing chore, but that wasn't Uriel's case.

With Dragonfang as a witness, he knew that no matter what he found inside that drawer, he would never outlive his embarrassment. Not even if he still had Water warlock's blessing which made him impervious to aging.

The drawer slowly opened and Miss Dragonfang could have swore she saw a bright golden light coming out of the drawer that partially illuminated Uriel's face. In part because that's exactly what happened.

"Hey! Didn't you said the electricity was cut?" Uriel asked.

"Yeah, we barely remain afloat as we are and can't afford to pay any bills." Inexplicably, in spite of the building's lack of electricity, Nika's drawer was brightly lit by two powerful lightbulbs. Other than that, the contents of the drawer were completely ordinary, though not what they expected.

The reason why most people kept their underwear in the first drawer was for the easy access it provided. For Nika, it was more convenient to keep her weapons at hand rather than underwear since she was a veteran hunter. Her line of thought was that an easy to access weapon could potentially save her life and she didn't care for underwear as long as it was clean.

"Whew! She really is something, isn't she?"

"Stop peeking, this is none of your business."

"Hey, I'm only here as a witness. When the girls come back I can tell them how you only followed the wire and acted like a gentleman or that you kicked me out to have enough privacy to do who knows what with their stuff." Miss Dragonfang shrugged.

"Were you aways this smart?" Uriel voiced his question like an insult, something Miss Dragonfang didn't miss.

"Where's my cute little Sage, the one that wheezed during the walk to his first incursion, the one who always took notes of my teachings. Where's the cute boy that couldn't take his eyes off of me when..."

"Fine, fine! I got it. Just give me some space, would you?" Uriel grunted and proceeded to follow the wire that gave power to the light bulbs. Fortunately for him, this time it was a short trip since the wire that fed the light bulbs went directly to the ceiling, hinting that he needed to check the third floor.

The third floor was pretty small compared to the other two and the only thing of note there were the water tanks that were repaired by Medusa to keep them with a steady source of water. However, now that Uriel knew what he was looking for he didn't miss the small red wire that went inside one of the water tanks, but when he attempted to open it, he realized that it was sealed.

"That thing's been broken for as long as I can remember." Miss Dragonfang hurriedly stated.

"I'm not saying you broke it, in fact, I think it's not broken at all." Uriel said as he softly pulled the wire, causing a door to open inside the 'water tank'. Instead of fixing it, Medusa reconditioned the old water tank and reinforced it with alloy from the inside to stash their orichalcum.

"Wow! We're saved! With this we can all move away from this problematic city." Miss Dragonfang let out.

"Hold your horses, even if we sold it to the government, which is impossible thanks to the Fallen corporation, they would pay a low price."

"Why would we keep it hidden away when we could use it for our benefit?" Miss Dragonfang knew they wouldn't get a fair price, but as long as it granted them a safe way out of the city she didn't care.

Uriel, though, had different plans on mind and thanks to his friend's forward thinking it was finally possible.

"First, call Vivian and ask her to bring her sister. I also need you to contact Captain Silvermane and let him know I'll be visiting soon. Oh! And I almost forgot, gather all the dungeon Raiders we can trust."

"Why would I follow your commands? You quit and I'm currently employed by the army..." Miss Dragonfang was moved to tears now that Uriel finally decided to put the Dungeon Raiders back together, but she wasn't willing to be let down after all she went through. She needed to make sure Uriel wouldn't just use them and then abandon them, she needed to know he was being serious about it.

"Yeah, well, I don't think I've mentioned this before, but now I'm a lieutenant in the army. The reason why I asked you to all Captain Silvermane is because we're going to need the army's help for what's about to come."

After months of hardships and keeping up appearances, Miss Dragonfang finally allowed herself to smile genuinely, bringing back her past charm and kicking it up a notch making her face look bright again. The tears that trickled down her face were of pure joy and she could barely keep herself together.

"I'm so happy I could kiss you right now." She said with a teary chuckle.

"Why are you still here? I gave you an order." Uriel scolded.

"Yes boss! No, wait... Now you're also a superior in the army, should I call him, Sir? Sir boss?" Miss Dragonfang disappeared as she mumbled nonsense to herself.

It brought Uriel a great deal of joy finally seeing Miss Dragonfang act like she did in the past, but te smile on his face faded once he was left alone. There was something odd about the vault, since all he found was the orichalcum not the source of power for the lightbulbs and went inside the former water tank to investigate.

It felt cramped with the piles of orichalcum, but Uriel decided to close the door behind him in hopes of finding a light source that gave away the generator's position. It may have seemed like a bad decision since he was by himself, but now he was certain he was strong enough to break through an alloy door.

What he found inside, though, wasn't the small flickering light but something different entirely. It was the same feeling of uneasiness he experienced when he was inside the hospital, probably caused by him being trapped in what was essentially an alloy cage, though there was also another strange feeling, one he was very familiar with.

"I feel like I can store something inside my museum, but I'm not touching it directly. It's as if the orichalcum channels the flux energy that lets me know there's an artifact nearby." Uriel muttered to himself and then attempted to store the supposed artifact inside his trait.

[System notice] Red thread of fate acquired.

"Red thread of fate!?" Uriel let out a gasp and proceeded to enter his trait expecting to find a coil of the red wire on top of one of the pedestals in the pre apocalyptic era exhibition, though what he found was something leagues better.

The location was correct, but instead of a mundane alloy wire he found the most beautifully crafted dagger he ever laid eyes upon.

It was black, big enough to almost be considered a small sword, but thin and delicate. It's tip was hooked in a fashion much similar to a harpoon and it also had a serrated back, though what stood out the most about the dagger was its hilt which was wrapped with a red.

The dagger's elegant design and color contrast between the black and the red was already enough to call it an art piece, though contrary to a regular piece of art that admitted several interpretations, there was only one meaning behind it and only Uriel possessed the key to truly understand it: friendship.