Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 568: Vlog: Research convergence

"Good day everyone, we are the Dungeon Raiders and this is our Vlog." Uriel smiled at the camera, like an old friend taught him once. " My name is Uriel Sage, I'm the Dungeon Raiders archaeologist. On my left is Luna, our cryptozoologist and on my right, Medusa our head engineer.

Today we are going to open a discussion about a phenomenon that pertains to our respective fields of study and it might unveil an important part of humanity's history as well as the origin of cryptids."

"Uhm, yes. This, right here, is a piece of a lepidodendrum tree which is confirmed to be extinct and yet, we were able to acquire a sample out of a live specimen." Luna started, then nodded at Uriel who took it as his cue.

"Because it is an extinct tree, acquiring a live sample would be impossible in usual circumstances. In fact, the only way we know about this tree is thanks to the fossils that were found before the arrival." Uriel showed a picture of the fossil he mentioned, then nodded at Medusa who for obvious reasons didn't notice.

"Is it my turn now? Oh! It is! Okay! This sample was found inside what we supposed was a time mirage. It is supposed to be a window through which we can see the past, but not experience it. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

However, I managed to venture inside and our archaeologist believes to..."

"That's Uriel's part." Nika slurred her words with a lively red color on her cheeks due to having one too many beers.

"Ahem, thanks, Nika," Uriel thanked her, but didn't introduce her which got her to frown her lips and retreat to a corner she knew would appear on camera. "I theorize that the phenomenon was actually caused by a 'trap' set up by the ancient civilization that built the dungeon.

While it is not mentioned in Davy Crockett's diary due to him not exploring that particular area, this artifact was found in the vicinity of the supposed 'time mirage'." As soon as Uriel showed the book of the dead, an ominous aura took over the place and he swiftly put it back inside his trait and continued speaking.

"After a rigorous inspection, I've found out that the book I just showed is the book of the dead and I believe it served as inspiration for the namesake funerary text discovered in Egypt, though comparing them both would be the same as comparing a glossary with a dictionary, but I digress.

The location where the book was found is proof enough that Dungeons are related to what's commonly referred to as afterlife." Uriel nodded at Luna.

"It may sound, uhm... crazy, but there's evidence of cryptids manipulating corpses such as vampires, and souls like the titan that caused our city's demise. Taking this into consideration, the existence of the afterlife is more or less a given." Luna said, making her best effort not to stutter, but it showed the light of the reflectors was bothering her.

"The idea of an afterlife has always been disregarded by science, but science doesn't counter facts. Science's purpose is to explain phenomena. I have a theory, but before presenting it we need a bit more context." Medusa explained, then nodded to the wrong place.

"The presence of the Air spirit people in the Alamo and the landscape hint that this particular dungeon is related to the air element. My previous experience in the dungeon of 'Te pito te nua', which translates into the 'bellybutton of the world', made me believe it's related to the water element.

Here's the thing, Chichén Itzá wasn't related to any particular element which makes me believe there must be at least two more elemental dungeons. It's your turn Medusa."

"Right, uh, sorry I got lost."

"The other two dungeons!" Nika made a cheer motion with her recently open beer can.

"Thanks. Inside The Alamo there's a couple 'gateways' that displace the location of whoever activates it. At first it left me puzzled, but after experiencing the 'time mirage' it became obvious that it wasn't actually a time mirage. It's a highly advanced technology that bends space and time without limits.

I traveled back in time to a prehistoric time and the evidence is currently on Luna's hand." Medusa said trying not to burst in joy at being the first human to have experienced time travel.

The importance of such a claim was groundbreaking to say the least, but anyone watching the Vlog would most likely pay more attention to Nika making funny faces behind or to Luna who realized she misplaced the sample and was frantically patting her pockets.

"If the dungeon is powerful enough for that, I think it's safe to assume all four elemental dungeons may as well connected to each other in the same way."

"The device that warped Medusa to the past is not meant for time travel and actually acts a trap made by an ancient civilization. Those who met the condition are able to pass through while others are stuck on it." Uriel explained then directed a question to Luna. "And what does all this have to do with cryptids?"

"Uhm, yes... cryptids... one might be inclined to say that cryptids are the ones who built the dungeons, but that's not the case. Dungeons are like backrooms, places that exist in our world and at the same time they don't. The material they're made of is seemingly impervious to any weapon or trait known to man, yet not so much to the passing of time as proven by their ruinous condition.

Time can damage them, but we can't because they're actually in other dimension."

"This phenomenon causes Dungeons to draw interdimensional energy into our dimension, said energy is what we call flux. It is believed to be the 'waste' produced by enthropy, or better said, by expending energy. Whenever a match is lit, it generates heat, kinetic energy, radiation, light and just a tiny bit of flux energy."

"And cryptids feed upon this energy, which is why they inhabit them and only come outside once there's enough flux energy to feed."

"This creates a perfect cycle in which cryptids feed on the energy inside dungeons, we on the other hand feed upon cryptids once we become hunters and dungeons feed upon us closing the cycle. That's why dungeons require human sacrifices, which means our souls are stored within the dungeon. This means, dungeons are the afterlife." With this, Uriel closed the discussion and turned the camera off.

"Whew! I never thought this would be so difficult!" Medusa let out.

"It was fun." Luna said with a perfect poker face.

"There's still many things we need to consider, but we can't continue without evidence and the only place we can find it is in the other two elemental dungeons, if they exist anyway." Uriel shrugged.

"Do you think it's a good idea to search for them?"

"Not really, I mean, I would love to go around the world and explore different ruins, but there's so many it would be impossible to tell if they're dungeons or just ruins."

"But I want more data..." Luna tugged on Uriel's sleeve knowing how much it annoyed him, but he didn't seem bothered.

"I didn't say we're not going to continue our research. All I'm saying is there's no reason to reinvent the wheel. We all know who knows the location of all the dungeons." Uriel stared at Medusa intensely enough for her to notice.

"I don't have access to that information, but even if I did, there might be too many dungeons to explore. Besides, in order to be granted access to that information I would need to go back to my family and they would most likely try to kill me or get me to marry someone for political purposes." The atmosphere became so dense it could be cut with a knife. Thankfully, Luna was sharper than a knife.

"Uhm... we can keep it as a last resort. Why are you laughing? Do I have something on my face?" She asked.

"Luna, you're too much." Medusa said after catching her breath.

"There's another alternative. We know of another group that might also be interested in the elemental dungeons, the society. And if we get Bella to help us we may anticipate their movements and beat them to the dungeons."

"I don't like her." Both Luna and Medusa said in unison.

"Hey, I said it's just an alternative," Uriel shrugged and silence befell the room making them notice Nika's loud snoring. She was leaning on one chair and had her legs spread on top of the table, snoring with a wide smile decorated with a thin silvery thread that dripped all the way to her shirt.

"She's so useless." Luna commented. Contrary to what it may have seemed, she didn't mean it like an insult. On Luna's eyes, Nika was the closest thing to a mother she ever had, a worthless, clingy and needy one, but it was still better than the faint memories of her biological one.

Nika would always make sure Luna ate properly during her long nights of research, she also bought clothes and all sorts of cute things for her and, if not for her bad habit of drinking in quantities that would kill a horse, she would have also been able to share the words Water warlock told her when they met, confirming their suspicions about the afterlife.

In fact, if she had remained awake for just five more minutes, she might have been able to impulse an earth shattering discovery.

"So useless..." Uriel smiled as he picked her up to take her to her room.