Dungeon Raider System

Bella looked down on the destruction she caused and felt embarrassed about herself. While it was true that Raider didn't match up to her expectations, it was the best 'date' she ever had. Although he didn't look like much, he was able to provide quite the enjoyable experience and he also managed to do something no one did before.

"Anyway..." She sighed, then rubbed the heat off of her cheeks as she went to check on her brother. "How long are you going to pretend to be asleep, big brother?"

Bella wasn't the only member of the Eurus family fighting off the embarrassment. Tate too couldn't believe he made all the theatrics of a soldier sacrificing his life for the flag, he even thanked Uriel, but then didn't die.

"How did you know I'm awake?"

"Geez! That's why I surpassed you, you never paid any attention to our family lessons."

"Maybe, but I'm still your big brother." Tate grunted as he stood up with the help of his sister who used the wind element to lift him.

"Where is he!? Is he dead?" An annoying voice asked in the distance. Contrary to most hunters with elemental traits who belonged to the society, Mark was incapable of using his element to boost his travel speed.

That was mostly because, although he belonged to the original fire element family, his branch of the family didn't pass on any of the generational knowledge and instead focused on private endeavors.

When Mark was summoned for the first time, he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that even the ascended had access to multiple skills and was shocked to see how efficiently they spent their flux energy.

Being chosen as the representative of the fire family would have been like a dream come true, if not for this being only a temporary solution since the head of the fire elemental family in their megacity perished during the city downfall fighting against the revenants.

If asked, any of them would have much preferred Soulfire, but he never made it to the dungeon which left them stuck with Mark.

"I didn't confirm the kill since he crossed the fog. With so much water in the air, my control of the wind becomes difficult." Bella explained and watched as Mark ran downhill followed closely by five hunters who possessed a fire element manipulation trait like himself.

With the huge crevasse caused by the impact of Bella's charged wind blade it wasn't difficult to follow Uriel, but the blood trail the wounded hunter left behind made it all the more easy. Mark had yet to decide on whether he would help Uriel escape or land the finishing blow, but he knew that in the end the one making the decision would be the horror rank cryptid still inhabiting his skin.

"Light up your hands, we're entering the fog." Mark commanded, incapable of doing the same since he lacked even the most basic training on fire skills due to his family cutting ties with their heritage.

"Why do we have to follow the orders of an incompetent who can't even light his own way?" One of the ascended lackeys murmured. In spite of his rank being lower than Marks, he was certain he could take him on, if not for the thing inside him.

Mark pretended not to hear anything as they crossed the fog barrier, then slowed his pace to not miss the blood trail which went deep into the darkness. As they ventured further and the light from above died down, one of the hunters crouched to take a closer look at the blood trail.

"I don't think anyone could survive losing so much blood." He said in an attempt to convince Mark to turn away as they were now enveloped in darkness and the only light that could be seen was their own.

"I'm not asking you to think, just do as I tell you and..." Mark's words died in his mouth as he noticed one of his men had disappeared.

"What's going on?" The only woman on the team asked, but when Mark turned to answer she was already gone.

"Fuck this, stay your ground." Mark was no genius, but he knew they were under attack and made a run for it uphill without heeding the desperate plies coming from behind him as his entire crew disappeared from existence by an unseen enemy.

***

Uriel woke up to a shrilling sound, though he couldn't see anything even after opening his eyes since he was completely dark. The thirst he experienced was nothing compared to the pain he felt below his waist and although he could still move what remained of his legs, he realized he had lost both legs a few centimeters above the knee.

"Curses..." He grunted as he attempted to find a more comfortable position to treat his wounds. He took his belt and proceeded to make a tourniquet on one of his legs, then cut a strand of cloth from his shirt to do the same with the other one.

Losing so much blood would make any other hunter to enter in shock and treating his own wounds without anesthesia was beyond painful, but Uriel was no stranger to pain as even back when he enjoyed the perks of Water warlock's blessing, he still felt pain.

The faint hissing sound of Uriel quietly opening an energy drink can was soon followed by the soft gulping sounds that brought Uriel back to life. He'd been into the abyss on different occasions and knew better than to make unnecessary noises or turn any lights on whenever cryptids were close, which was precisely the case.

Uriel had never seen them, but he knew that creatures near the so called Central island were drawn to the light. He'd sensed them on several occasions, but thankfully he noticed their behavior during the first time he climbed that mountain.

After resting for a while, Uriel started his slow crawl following his friends knowing that the more time passed, the more difficult it would become to catch up to them. Every movement was painful, but he didn't let it demotivate him.

In fact, Uriel was actually happy for how things turned out as he learned more than he expected from Tate and his brief encounter with Bella. He also learned it was possible to transition back to the ascended level by turning on the power saving feature on the system which should save him a lot of annoyance in the future.

He was already sick and tired of the constant beeping sound that warned him whenever the battery on his cellphone was low.

In a sense, Uriel considered he gained more than he lost. If anything, he wished he didn't have to spend the last of his serum on Tate, but he found himself cornered at the time and had no choice.

Uriel crawled on the ground for what felt like an eternity, but he had yet to find foot tracks left behind by his allies or sense any human presence with his mystical sense. The only thing he could sense was the presence of the cryptids loitering around blindly in the vast darkness.

'The shade cast by the islands above should have ended by now, perhaps I'm lost.' The thought crossed his mind. It would have been a bad scenario, but thanks to his previous experiences down in the abyss it wasn't the worst that could happen.

Now that he left the big cluster of light seeking cryptids that lurked at the foot of the mountain, Uriel was sure that as long as he remained silent, with enough time he would eventually reach his friends. All he needed to do was to find the quadrants he drew before or at least get out of the shade to orient himself.

At least he had enough food and drink to sustain himself, especially after receiving the daily reward for reaching the training level 3 during the fight with Bella.

At least that was what he thought until he sensed a particularly strong energy signature coming his way. It wasn't fast, but it headed directly towards him drawing a straight line.

'I just need to reach the light and everything will be alright' Uriel gained a second wind after noticing he was being trailed by something, while inwardly cursing that his mystical sense wasn't more precise. If he at least knew what kind of creature followed him, he would know how to fight it as even in his current condition he was far from being defenseless.

At the distance, a slim window of hope opened as he noticed Uriel was getting closer to the edge of the shade cast by the island above and with a last ditch effort he summoned the 'Red thread of fate' and threw it as far as he could fishing for a rock, an orichalcum vein, anything that would give him the chance to pull his own weight forward.

But the closer the creature drew towards him, the more anxious he became and when he finally managed to jab the blade into an obstacle, the tip slipped and threw the dagger back at him with enough force to split him in half, if not for someone catching it up mid flight.

"What are you doing here?" Nika's voice asked enshrouded in darkness.