Dungeon Raider System

Chapter 69 : Night in the ossuary

Although they didn't say it out loud, both of them expected the chamber on top of the ossuary to be filled with undead monsters but, much to their relief, it turned out to be empty. There wasn't a single cryptid on sight, even the cultural artifacts and remains had been removed decades ago by archaeologists of the past.

Thanks to the building being repaired it was a nice refuge from the mist and since it only had a single entrance it was the safest building they've encountered so far.

They were both exhausted and Nika didn't have the chance to recover much flux energy, just as Uriel wasn't able to recover the ammunition required for his magnum revolver so they decided to spend the night there and get their much needed rest.

"What are you doing, stay away!" Uriel complained as Nika, his personal assistant, laid next to him on the floor trying to cuddle up with him.

"But I'm cold!"

"It's not my problem."

"Come on, don't you want a beauty like me sleeping by your side?"

"No, figure it out on your own."

"What do you want me to do, pull a blanket out of my ass?" She scoffed, flustered by Uriel's uptight behavior.

The absence of the mist didn't mean the night was any warmer, even though they were on a jungle, somehow the temperature had dropped considerably, though Nika was clearly more affected than Uriel. If anything, the light provided by the mist only made things more creepy as it could only be seen through the entrance of the ossuary chamber, while it was completely dark inside.

The next morning Uriel woke up to a grumbling stomach, though it wasn't his own but Nika's. She was sleeping next to him mindlessly scratching her belly. Just when Uriel was about to nag at her, the bright daylight beaming through the entrance revealed something incredible.

"Wake up!" He gently nudged on her.

"Just five more hours please..." She begged with her eyes still closed.

Despite the chamber walls being completely blank, its roof contained an incredible amount of carvings that Uriel could now read only because he was laying on his back.

[The father of many nations and the dearest one salute you on your final journey. Many sons and daughters may mourn your depart and your lands remain fertile long after you have gone. May you rest and live in our memories, may you go to Xibalbá without regrets and, should your house crumble, may you come back to avenge it.]

"That doesn't sound nice." Nika quickly got up after hearing the last part.

"It doesn't."

"But it doesn't necessarily mean..." Nika avoided voicing her fear out loud.

"Why else would the writing be on the roof!?" Uriel too stood up and Nika clung on to him in fear only this time he didn't push her away as he too was scared of the possibility of encountering undead cryptids.

There was no denying it, the only reason why such a writing would be on the roof was so it could be read from below, opening the doors to their deepest fear, that the dead could be reanimated by the ominous structure.

"Anyway, since it doesn't say anything about any secret passage or underground tunnel I guess we don't have to stay here anymore."

"That's not necessarily true, considering the position of the writing there must be a clue or something on the floor." The reason why Uriel was so confident in his claim wasn't just based on instinct, Mayan architecture was well known for it's incredible precision and there was something odd in the placement of the tiles.

Every stone was of the exact size it needed to be, they were fitted so tightly not even a hair could fit in between them. That was one of the reasons why most of the ancient structures managed to withstand the passing of centuries, but there was a small gap in the stone floor right besides a huge stone slab.

"Help me out here, would you?" Uriel said as he tried to poke the slab out of it's place with difficulty.

"It's not going to come out, do you know how heavy those things are?"

"I just need some leverage..." Uriel took a minute to think about the tools he had available. The swiss knife, the revolver, the rifle he took from a dead person, nothing that could be useful, but as he sat on the floor Nika smiled with malice.

She then leaned dangerously close towards Uriel who was sitting down, placing her deep cleavage right in front of his face, unknowingly triggering the effect of the lewd magazine stored inside his museum. Her measurements alone didn't mean much to him, but somehow he couldn't shake them off his mind.

[Nika Garcia] weight 50 (kg), height 178 (cm), body measurements 86-60-91 (cm)

"I love teasing virgin boys like you." She said with a smirk noticing Uriel's reddened cheeks. She then cracked her knuckles and used the orichalcum dagger she had just stolen from his unsuspecting victim.

"Hey! that's mine!"

"I know! I know alright! I'm just borrowing it. I think I can take out the stone slab with this thing." She waved the blunt dagger in the air, then she crouched and placed its tip at the gap in between the stone slabs. Thinking it would be a heavy task, she used way too much force and the slab was sent flying towards the wall breaking into a million pieces.

"Great, now you're destroying the site!" Uriel scolded, but his words died as a deep moan accompanied with a cold dry breeze was released from the dark vault that was just opened by Nika.

"That wasn't creepy... It was just the wind." She said as she crossed herself.

"Of course it wasn't creepy, it's just the difference in pressure between the two chambers, it's no wonder the air was dry and stale inside either since it's probably been sealed for centuries." Contrary to Nika, Uriel shrugged off the seemingly supernatural event since it wasn't something unexpected for him. He had read about similar happenings in old archaeology records.

"Do you have a light source?" He asked after noticing the darkness inside the hole.

"I got some flares, but they won't last that long."

"Why didn't you bring a gas lantern or something!?"

"And where do you suggest I carry it?" Nika's attire was anything but functional as it only covered the minimum required for decorum and she didn't have a backpack either. Uriel would have loved to keep scolding her, but the backpack he was carrying was filled with tier 3 batteries and nothing else.

He expected to make use of them to activate Kukulkan's pyramid, and the thought of picking up a lantern didn't even cross his mind on the way to the ossuary.

"Anyway, try and toss a flare down there to see how deep it is."

Prompted by Uriel, Nika lit up a flare and dropped it on the chamber below, it was a two meter fall that didn't foresee anything good as it was deep dark and the light of day couldn't reach it.

"Not it!" Nika shouted.