Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 195: Three paths

When everyone closed their eyes they were able to feel the ’membrane’ Uriel spoke of and were transported to a different place. It was a vast dark area Sam described as a triangle pyramid. Something like that was completely out of the ordinary as most pyramids were built with four sides instead of three and both Uriel and Jon fell into silent thinking.

It was now Ethan’s time to act.

"Everyone, scout the area!" At his command, the soldiers began walking all over the place without showing any concern about their safety. They thought that, just because there weren’t any cryptids on sight, the place was safe.

"Stop what you’re doing! There might be traps!" Uriel tried to warn them, but some of the men had already activated the ancient mechanisms that served as traps for the unwary.

Some of them fell into bottomless pits, some were burned by pillars of dark fire and some simply fell dead on the spot. The screams of anguish and pain filled the inside of the three sided pyramid, but they subsided as soon as those who fell into the traps perished making it seem as though nothing had happened.

"Why didn’t you say something before? Huh? You were expecting something like this to make me lose face." Ethan accused Uriel in a seemingly calm tone of voice that, somehow, carried a murderous intent.

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"Who cares about you losing face? Those men deserved better than having a worthless leader like you!"

"Stop blabbering!" Jon commanded. "This isn’t in the diary, something is wrong!"

"Then maybe you should tell us what’s in the diary." Uriel glared at Jon.

"Hey Nikki, tell you boytoy to stop distracting me." Jon was serious. He liked to joke around and act like a fool but when it came to archaeology, more precisely the money that could come out of archaeology, he was dead serious.

"Who are you calling a boytoy you worthless alcoholic!1" Uriel’s anger rose to a hundred and he couldn’t endure it any longer.

"I said," Jon looked at Uriel straight in the eye. "To shut your bloody mouth off or else."

The immense pressure coming off from Jon made everyone weak on their knees. They felt a cold oppressing sensation that made them feel insignificant, something in between vertigo and fear of the unknown. Something so unsettling they forgot how to breathe.

"Stop it!" Nika cried after being reminded of the sensation she experienced when the nameless horror looked at her.

"And I said, I’m not a toyboy and you’re a worthless alcoholic." Uriel repeated his words, only now his expression was as serious as Jon’s.

"You!" For an instant Jon felt shivers run down his spine and the pressure he was emitting subsided. He then took a few steps back in a mix of fear and disbelief, for the second time Uriel had managed to impress him.

Ever since he became a holy rank hunter only one person had managed to endure his presence while he emitted flux without flinching and it was the same person that almost killed him back when he was a mercenary. "How are you doing this?"

"I’ve seen worse." Uriel wasn’t lying and it showed.

"Just what kind of monster did you face..." Nika muttered as she looked towards Uriel with pity on her eyes. She knew it couldn’t be the nameless horrors because she herself couldn’t endure Jon’s presence like Uriel did. The only possible explanation that came to her mind was Water warlock, but she shook her head when Uriel spoke again.

"In case you haven’t noticed, we’re all in this together. If you don’t want to share the knowledge in David Crockett’s diary that I found, then I don’t see the point in collaborating any further."

"Then what do you propose?"

"There’s three sides on this place. Each side must be related to a relic which, in turn, must be tied to a different place."

"I see where you’re going with this. The tribalwear was Apache, the tomahawk Sioux and the war bonnet was Comanche. David Crockett possessed all three relics when he entered the dungeon but we divided them, then it means..."

"They’re for three different places and each must be related to a different relic."

"Indeed, Crockett mentioned three worlds each more difficult than the next," Jon sighed. "but that’s pretty much it. There’s nothing else in this diary that can be of any help."

Ethan tried to follow their conversation but he was unable to and he deeply regretted not forcing Pangiotis to come along in the exploration, though he would have most likely ended up dead before even getting to the lost city.

The only thing Ethan was able to make of their conversation was that they were most likely about to get separated into factions to follow the different paths, but the difficulty of the dungeon will vary depending on which path they choose.

"I’ll take the easiest way." Ethan said without a hint of shame.

"If only we knew which is which, we don’t even know where is the entrance to each side, let alone where do they lead to." Jon said dismissively.

"Whichever we pick, I don’t think it will make a difference." Uriel said.

"Explain your reasoning."

"It’s simple, really. Each of our factions took possession of a relic, in other words, we each hold possession of a key. That means, we’ll most likely be directed to the ’world’ related to the relic we got." Uriel explained, though his reasoning was much more simple.

He knew about the trial he passed at the chamber of echoes thanks to the system and while the relics did act like keys, Uriel guessed that the relics were linked to whoever passed the trial.

"Ah! So unfair!" Jon pouted. "I had to face a horror level cryptid, that must mean our path will be the most dangerous one. What about you soldier?"

"I think it was an entity level." Ethan replied, though he was unsure because he didn’t stay long enough to identify the guardian that killed his party members.

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"Well, mine was an..." Uriel’s tongue almost slipped and said ’ascended’ because he fought against Atomic, but then he thought about it better and remembered his fight against the eclipse. While he was granted the right to acquire the war bonnet after defeating Atomic, he also received a system message that prompted him to kill the eclipse before it reached the city.

"It was an entity level cryptid so I guess we can’t be sure it relates to the difficulty of the place we’ll go to."

Wit that, everything was settled and the only thing left to do was to choose a path. But before the three factions took separate paths, Medusa switched sides.

"I’m sorry for this, but I’m here on behalf of my family and I’ll have to go with uncle Jon." She said teary eyed."

"Just be careful not to fall into a trap and if that guy..."

"Don’t worry, he’ll protect me." Medusa replied and much to everyone’s surprise, she leaned closer and kissed Uriel on the cheek.