Dungeon Raider System

"What the flag is going on here!?" Cassandra asked as soon as she barged in wearing casual clothes and without a military escort, but her arrival was too late as both Uriel and Kalos boasted a brand new black eye, courtesy of each other.

"He started it!" Both men said in unison.

"I can't even come visit my sister without trouble following me around." Cassandra let out a dejected sigh.

"Do you always wear revealing clothes to visit your sister?" Medusa scoffed at Cassandra who didn't hesitate to take the challenge.

"These are my normal clothes, just so you know." Cassandra lied through her teeth, something no one would have known if not for Luna.

"I've never seen you showing so much skin..."

"Fine! You got me, I'm here because I need help and Lieutenant Iris insisted it would... help my case." Cassandra finally let out in her army voice with only her blushing cheeks to reveal how she truly felt.

"General Sword?" Asked Kalos in disbelief, still refusing to accept that his assessment of the Dungeon Raiders as a weak corporation he would be able to bully into submission was faulty, to say the least.

"You're the Dolminico kid, right? This doesn't concern you." Cassandra said before tugging on Uriel's arm trying to carry him away, but Uriel planted his feet on the ground preventing her from doing so.

"Just spit your venom and be on your way." Medusa joked with a lazy half smile. Although they appeared to be enemies, after all they've been through they actually considered each other as a friend.

"Actually, the army is doing pretty good now with the new shelter design. I just wondered if you would be interested in participating in an archaeology research project." Cassandra looked Uriel in the eye the whole time she spoke, something Medusa missed due to being blind.

"What kind of project are we speaking of?"

"Well, you know the army has been exploring the dungeon. Thanks to that, we managed to collect a few articles you might be interested in." Before she finished speaking, Lieutenant Iris walked in, also wearing casual clothes, pushing a small cart filled with broken jars, arrowheads, a flintlock pistol and other items.

"These are..." Uriel attempted to speak with his slack jaw.

"They're artifacts, some of them are from a date previous to the colonization of our continent."

"Who's your expert? How did you identify all these things?" Uriel's eyes gleamed with greed.

"Did you forget I took Pangeotis' class with you? Because I didn't." Sword awkwardly winked at Uriel.

"I... did." Uriel shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, of all these artifacts, I think this is the one you'd be more interested in." Cassandra spoke slowly as she produced from her pocket a golden earring that looked very old.

"How did you get this!?" Uriel shook Cassandra by her shoulders.

"We just removed some dirt around..."

"You must evacuate the entire island and tear down all the bridges connecting it to the others!"

"What? Why are you being so serious all of a sudden?" Cassandra asked, obviously taken back by Uriel's sudden mood shift.

"You just disturbed a cementery... inside of a dungeon no less." Uriel buried his face on his palm trying not to remember what happened back on Chichen Itzas's ossuary.

"Calm down, nothing bad happened. Besides, how do you know it was from a cementery?" Cassandra tried to release herself from Uriel's grip and she barely managed to do it making a leathery sound as Uriel's hands rubbed against her shoulders.

"Didn't you say you took anthropology? Oh, right, you missed half a semester when you joined the army. Soldiers of old times were usually buried with arrowheads or pieces of pottery, but the most important piece of evidence is that earring. Soldiers were usually sent to places far away from home and they usually wore a piece of gold to pay for their coffins in the case they died on a strange land.

The only thing I can recommend you is to leave those wherever you found them and seal the island."

"Do you think they might be... cursed?" Cassandra stuttered.

"I don't believe in curses," Uriel said prompting a relieved sigh from Cassandra, but much to her dismay he continued speaking. "But we can't rule that possibility out. Especially inside a dungeon where the veil of life and death seems to be thinner."

Cassandra couldn't make much of Uriel's explanation, but watching him turn down the offer to buy ancient artifacts was enough for her to understand she made a mistake and retreated back to the army's camp without spending time with Luna. Something the tiny huntress did appreciate since contrary to Uriel, she did believe curses were real.

"I don't really get it... but can you..." Before Cassandra even finished speaking.

"I'm sorry Luna, but I won't be able to go with you, but I'll leave the items you asked for with Miss Dragonfang."

"But it's the first expedition I'm leading and I wanted you to come with us."

"Don't give me the puppy eyes, It'll just be a couple day tops and perhaps I'll be able to join you after." Uriel replied apologetically. Despite Luna's monotone, he knew how Luna felt about him bailing out on her.

"Uhm... Medusa...?" Asked Luna once Uriel left the place.

"Sorry, I won't be of much help in a fight unless it's on a enclosed space where my trait can be controlled." She shrugged and left the tent.

"What incursion are you even talking about?" Asked Kalos who was still trying to make sense of the relationship the Dungeon Raiders had with the general to which Lamar replied knowing that his former student hated pointing out the obvious.

"We're going to search for a new food source. Even if we don't find the exact same plant Miss Dolminico identified as edible, with her help we might find an alternative." Lamar adjusted his glasses.

The party ended up being comprised by Luna and Lamar, two field medics, Miss Dragonfang a combatant and Chiara who was a rookie ranger with little experience. They only lacked an engineer, but increasing their numbers would turn them into a bigger target and Luna decided it was best if to play it safe.

In spites of being from a restaurant company, Kalos never actually cared about it and preferred science over cuisine. That was precisely why he joined the engineer class and why he let his sister take the role of the family heir.

To him, being wealthy enough to indulge in his engineering hobby while dating hot girls was more than enough and now that everything fell into chaos and his family became relevant.

This incursion was important to everyone and if it succeeded it might boost the Dolminico's status up to the top of the companies within the dungeon. However, if the incursion failed and his sister perished, he would still benefit as he would have one less sibling to fight over the company's ownership when his parents died.

"I'm not going." Kalos voiced out.

"You weren't invited anyway." Luna glared at him as though she was looking at a bug.

After gearing up with the things Luna asked from Uriel, such as lanterns and camping equipment, Luna's party headed towards the inner most floating island. The one with the marbled pillars where the entrance to the third world.

It was her first time being appointed as party leader, but Lamar was too strict with his hunting manual and his decision making wasn't flexible enough to lead a dangerous expedition into the unknown.

Just as Luna said, the first concentric island on the third world was a walk in the park. Just running was enough to leave the encumbered butterflies behind and the only problem was their numbers piling up as they advanced through the rainbows. Thankfully, Luna was aware that the second concentric island rotated which allowed them to find their way towards the broken rainbow bridge.

"What now?" Asked Lamar with excitement as he was able to see the 'sanctuary island' in the middle.

"I... uh... was counting on her to make a bridge." Luna shrugged, her soft voice encompassed by the tremor caused by cryptids stampeding in the distance.

"A bridge? how!?" Miss Dragonfang exclaimed as she gaped at the undetermined distance between the two sides.

"Let me handle this." Chiara confidnently said as she placed her hands in the ground channeling a massive amount of flux energy, at least for an ascended. Plants and vegetation from both sides reacted by drawing in all the moisture from the surroundings and crawling slowly towards the rainbow bridge and then converging in the middle, allowing a safe path for the hunters to cross the gap.

"Good girl." Luna said as she patted the exausted Chiara on the back with an unreadable expression on her face. Although they were in what could be considered one of the most dangerous places on the dungeon, Luna's mind drifted to her friends as an eerie feeling she never experienced before crept to the back of her head.