Dungeon Raider System

Chapter 100 : Party in the slums Part 3

They all stared at each other awkwardly, then Luna broke the silence.

"Every family has its own secrets I guess, but there's nothing else that comes to mind right now." Luna was the only one with the guts to tell something like that to her orphan friend, as she was aware that Uriel had been abandoned by his parents as a child and had no family background.

"I see. Then, how would you feel if I told you a secret of my own?" Uriel said after realizing they truly didn't know about dungeons. "Do you know where does orichalcum come from?"

"From Atlantis." Medusa answered.

"Dammit! Is there a hunter news channel I don't know about? How am I the last one to learn about everything?" Uriel was beyond frustrated as he only learned about the existence of the mythical city of Atlantis when Walter told him.

"Don't look at me, I didn't know." Sam said, then Luna shook her head as she too didn't know about the existence of Atlantis or the origin of orichalcum.

"That's because only the Mapple corp. knows about Atlantis." Nika said as she came back to the room, prompting everyone to glare at Medusa expecting an answer, but she remained silent.

Because of her reaction, it became obvious to everyone that she had some sort of relationship with the Mapple corporation, but no one pried into it and Uriel continued as if nothing had happened.

"Orichalcum was indeed found in Atlantis which, by the way, was supposedly a mythological city. But I know for a fact that it can also be found inside dungeons."

"Dungeons? as in... that old game?" Sam asked.

"I can't be sure, but look at this." Uriel said as he pulled the 'clay' figurine from his trait.

"Wow, that looks old!" Medusa said in admiration.

"That's because it is, It was found in Chichén Itzá and even though it doesn't look like it, it's actually made of orichalcum. During the expedition I also discovered that, although the buildings seemed to be made of regular stone, they were actually made from a different material."

"Don't tell me!? Orichalcum!? A whole city made of orichalcum!?" Sam, who had only rarely encountered anything made with that precious metal almost shouted.

"Of course not. It was different, some sort of... living stone, I can't describe it in any other way. Anyway, the buildings were able to channel flux too but my guess is the material is impossible to harvest, or else the Mapple corp. would have destroyed the place long ago."

"I can give faith to that. They really tried to harvest it, but the metal behind the stone layer was indestructible." Nika said nodding.

"Then what about the figurine? You mentioned you knew where to get orichalcum, but nothing you've said so far supports your claim." Luna asked.

"Oh, you're going to love this." Uriel said as he threw the clay figurine to the ground.

When the clay figurine touched the floor it didn't shatter like they were expecting. Instead, the clay layer started peeling off and an enormous feline, almost too big even for the spacious room they were in, appeared amidst arcs of energy.

"What is that thing!?" Sam cried in terror as he retreated to the corner.

Luna's reaction was different as she calmly stared at the beast in front of her. She then took a couple steps forward and started examining it with curious eyes.

"it's an Ocelotl and I don't think it's a good idea to get too close." Uriel warned the mesmerized Luna. His connection with the cryptid had become stronger now that the figurine was inside his museum and now he could somewhat understand its feelings. "It doesn't like being touched."

Luna's eyes were wide as dinner dishes and her mouth was gaping. She had an expression of pure joy that made her look even more like a child than she usually did. Unfortunately for her, the encounter with the Ocelotl was short lived as Uriel's flux energy was quickly drained by the powerful cryptid and it was sucked into the figurine.

"I'm in... Whatever you want, I'm in." Luna said. "Will I be able to get one of those for myself?"

"Honestly, I can't be sure." Uriel couldn't lie to her face, not when she looked so innocent.

"Uhm... uh, it doesn't matter. I'll try my best." Luna said after going back to her usual self.

"I might be interested too... If there's orichalcum in there we could go to that place and..." Medusa said but was cut short by Uriel.

"I don't think it'll be possible for us to go back to Chichén Itzá, that place is under the control of the Mapple corp. and we're not capable of competing against them. The reason why I want to make a party is so we could work together to find a dungeon to claim for ourselves."

"Are dungeons dangerous?" Sam asked.

"Yes, well... no... I mean, I couldn't know for sure, I've only been to one."

"Then how do you know there's more than one dungeon?"

"Stop it Sam! Why are you questioning him so much?" Medusa scolded.

"It's fine Medusa, I meant to tell you guys all I know about dungeons anyway. Dungeons are underground structures built in the indestructible material I mentioned before. There's cryptids inside and also traps. I didn't actually reach the end of the dungeon below Chichén Itzá, though I'm certain that if you guys were with me, we would have been able to advance further.

Since I was alone I was forced to retreat before finding anything of value, but my guess is there's a lot of orichalcum inside dungeons."

"How could you possibly know that?" Sam asked yet another question, but this time Medusa didn't scold him as she too was interested in the answer. It didn't matter how much money she had, in order to achieve her dream she would need all the orichalcum she could get her hands on.