Dungeon Raider System

Without gravestones or tombstones, the place was nothing but a collection of holes in the ground dug by the soldiers who discovered the island. Finding the artifacts was only a happy accident that took place only thanks to the dire need of dirt to use as building material and also to grow crops.

While digging in the floating islands was possible, it was also pretty dangerous and slow and soldiers realized it was easier to just transport it back to where they needed it.

Uriel woke up with a smile he couldn't contain as he had the most interesting dreams in anticipation of his findings, only his smiled seemed more like a displeased grin to those who didn't know him. Be it because of his upbringing or his lack of experience in being happy, his smile was always crooked.

"This is nice." Uriel stretched after drinking one of his energy drinks and then nodded at the progress made by his 'minions'. Tate did little work himself, but he didn't take his eyes from the corporals to make sure no one disturbed the findings.

"Sir, we found many lithic artifacts. If you see this dendrogram, you'll find the different clusters we manage to identify." The female corporal informed after performing flawless salute.

"Did you categorize all this according to a work plan?"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Then categorized it detailing its features..." Uriel said, his eyes welling up in tears.

"And then... and then you categorized them over the base of a comparative distribution and work group associations." Uriel sniffed as he wiped his tears with his uniform sleeve.

"Yes... Sir, did I do something wrong?" The woman asked with a fearful expression, but Uriel was too shaken to reply. Instead, he followed the dendrogram and analyzed the results trying not to mind the strange feeling that overtook him.

"Excellent work, corporal..."

"Lara, Sir." She answered the tacit question.

"Some of the clusters seem a bit off and I disagree with some of the associations you made, but this is truly solid work."

"Excuse me?" The woman asked a bit offended, completely unaware that Uriel was also an archaeologist. Because of the nature of the investigation and the fact that she was specifically chosen by Tate for the job, she wrongfully assumed she was the leading expert on the investigation.

"Don't worry, we all make mistakes. Especially if you don't know the context of a burial site."

"Context? What context?"

"Take this, for example. You assumed this particular burial site belonged to a confederate soldier, then this one to some sort of maori immigrant and this other one to some scandinavian explorer." Uriel pointed at the graphic rather than the actual burial sites.

"It's evident because of the location. This fish hook is obviously a good luck charm."

"That's where you're wrong. Taken by separate, it seems as though a single group of people with varied cultural values but pertaining to the same society was buried here. But the opposite is true, this is evidence that people from different cultures somehow made their way to this dungeon. It's evidence that all dungeons are connected to each other." Uriel explained.

"I refuse to believe that, there's absolutely no evidence to suggest something like that. Without bodies..."

"My point exactly, there are no bodies buried in this graveyard. Why do you think that is?"

"I... I haven't considered it actually."

"I'll tell you where they are... they're in the depths of this world, probably turned into gross versions of themselves. There's nosferatu vampires lurking around, or at least there were before I killed the horror level thing."

"Ha, ha! Nice one..." The corporal who liked to run his mouth scoffed ironically.

"Fall back, Corporal Aragan." Tate warned seriously, hinting that he didn't doubt Uriel's statement to be true which left the corporals wondering just how strong could he possibly be.

"As I was saying, dungeons are different than the outside world. Maybe we're still behind the Alamo, but maybe we're not."

"The absence of corpses is not evidence enough that the different dungeons are connected, though..." The woman said in a thin voice. She felt intimidated, but that wasn't enough to keep her from being professional.

"You are correct, that's why we'll have to perform a detailed examination." Uriel said with a grin that could barely pass as a smile.

"But you just said there could be vampires nearby!" The eldest corporal rebuked.

"What's your name, soldier?"

"I'm Buckshield, Sir."

"It may not seem like it, but we may have stumbled on a way to save the entire population of our city. If we manage to understand how to travel from one dungeon to another, we may evacuate people to a safer place if need arises once more. Heck! I even know of a secluded island guarded by 'friendly' cryptids that may take us in. After all, they do owe me...

a lot," Uriel muttered the last part gritting his teeth at the memory of how much of his own money did he spend to feed the people of Easter island when they were trapped in the underground caverns. "Besides, at least we know there aren't any corpses in these tombs. This means we won't be dealing with... well... undead."

"Undead?" Lara echoed, but instead of addressing her concern Uriel hopped straight into business.

"According to this paper, there's quite a few interesting findings. Do you mind walking me through them?" In other times, Uriel would have found himself blushing up to his ears just for speaking to a woman he was interested in. Now, in spites of how attractive Lara's professionalism was, Uriel didn't so much as stutter while speaking to her.

"Yes, over here we found the fish hook." Lara guided Uriel to a a small hole that could barely be called a tomb.

"Interesting, more than someone digging up a hole to bury the deceased, it seems as though..."

"They were thrown from above and the artifacts were covered by a layer of dirt." Lara finished.

"Precisely!" Uriel's eyes gleamed in joy.

"Excuse me, but... isn't it possible that they fell from the island above?"

"Without the human remains we can't assume their cause of death. However, I didn't notice any particular obstacle on the island above us. Why would so many different people be motivated to cross through the same place? Perhaps if they all belonged to a single group this might be possible, but as our Lieutenant pointed out, there's a possibility that they're from different points in time.

That leads us to the conclusion that someone threw them off into this particular spot on purpose."

"And that purpose is clear to me. You see, vampires are weak to sunlight, even the artificial one in this dungeon. By throwing the corpses over into this particular island, they managed to get rid of them without wasting any of their scarce firewood, while also preventing the nosferatu to feed from the corpses." Uriel explained.

"Then, how did they turn them into vampires? You said that's why they're not in the tombs." Buckshield asked.

"They can do that from a distance. The black goo they throw is actually their blood, once it infects you it's difficult to deal with, but luckily its effects are only local to people who is still alive. Corpses, on the other hand, became something like marionettes and would only regain sentience if they fed enough."

With Uriel's vast knowledge about vampires there was now little space to doubt he had some sort of participation on killing the vampires which also implied he was also the one responsible for turning the vampires within the city back into humans.

Citizens weren't well informed, but there were many theories running around about who was the one behind it and all the answers converged in a single mysterious character.

"You're him! You're Raider!"

"I... am." Uriel nodded awkwardly.

"Now I feel safer already!" Buckshield laughed merrily. He looked like he wanted to keep making conversation, but Tate stared at him and made him flinch.

"As I was saying before, this is a Rapa Nui Mangai. It's just a fish hook, but people wear it on their necks as a protective talisman. If you think about it, it's quite smart since it can be used to fish when stranded."

"I see... then, what about this sword? I know it's scandinavian, but look at this inscription..." Lara pointed at a rusty old sword.

"Could this be... I think this is an Ulfberht sword. They were quite advanced for their period and they can't be replicated even with modern day technology." With Lara's help, they unearthed the different artifacts they found following impeccable field management procedures.

The first step was to dig them up, then brush off the dust, identify and tag the artifacts and then remove the soil patch in a cube to pack it up. This was because ancient artifacts were fragile and could fall apart if mishandled. The only way to properly study them was in a table with all the gear.

Unfortunately for Uriel, this was a slow process and although he enjoyed every minute of working side by side with a proper archaeologist, he was unaware that time was running against him as a mild inconvenient was rapidly snowballing into a crisis.