Dungeon Raider System

Chapter 80 : Dungeon Raider

[System notice] Title acquired: Dungeon Raider.

"It's a dungeon!?" Uriel exclaimed at the revealing message he just received by the system app on his phone.

Uriel was both overjoyed and dejected on equal measure by the new information. While the implication of the underground structure being a dungeon opened an alluring mystery right in front of his eyes, his new title wasn't flattering in the slightest.

Problem was, as much as he wanted to deny it, just like with the other titles he received, they were as offending as they were true. Stealing from a corpse, digging up a burial site, breaking a priceless artifact and now entering a building without permission, like a burglar in the night.

The worst part wasn't just that it made it sound like he was some sort of criminal, but that all of those things could be considered grave sins for an archaeologist such as himself.

The whole purpose of archaeology was to study and preserve history by studying cultural remains. Uriel was passionate about his studies and his life long dream had always been to pass on to history as a great archaeologist, but how was he supposed to accomplish that when 'the system' branded him as nothing but a shameful criminal.

'That's a problem for another day.' Uriel buried his thoughts as he made his way forward, crouching here and there to examine the seemingly uninteresting slabs. Even the absence of groundbreaking discoveries was a marvel on its own right. In the field of archaeology it wasn't the monetary value what determined the importance of a finding.

Even the size and disposition of the stones could say a lot about the people who built the place, how long it was built and where did they come from. But in spite of Uriel's years of hard study about such matters, he couldn't draw any conclusions.

The material that looked like regular stone but it possessed some strange properties which made it impossible for him to determine the location from where it was mined. This made him remember the female engineer who briefly accompanied him as a bodyguard during his first trip to the Cenote as her trait seemed to allow her to determine the composition of materials in front of her.

Thinking about her only amounted to the sense of loneliness he had been experienced ever since Nika left him on his own.

Uriel slapped his own cheeks to regain focus and continued examining the place. The size and proportion of the slabs was perfect but at the same time, it made no sense from a human's perspective and, finally, there was nothing that could hint the time it was built. Of course it was pre columbian, Uriel was certain that it was even older than the Mayan civilization, but how much older?

He couldn't say.

'Maybe studying can only go that far...' The thought of assembling a team to investigate this dungeon excited him, but given his circumstances he doubted something like that would ever come to happen. Even though he knew the dungeon had to be located below Chichén Itzá, it didn't matter if he wasn't capable of finding a way back.

Any other person would have simply walked past the corridor, but Uriel wasted much of his precious time due to a false sense of security.All that changed when a the bone chilling shriek resounded in the distance as the nameless banged repeatedly against the doors trying to bash it open.

Realizing his mistake he unceremoniously darted across the hallway trying to make up for the lost time. The ominous creatures that pursued him kept stubbornly banging at the door with incredible force, distracting Uriel for just enough time for him to activate a trap.

As soon as he set foot on the chamber that opened in front of him, a stone mechanism was activated and something that resembled a wooden mallet spiked from the roof at high speed.

Although Uriel's speed stat allowed him to notice the incoming object, it wasn't enough to dodge in time and he received the hit in full. The devastating blow sent him flying towards the entrance, emptying his lungs and cracking some of his ribs on the process.

Thankfully, the trap wasn't meant to deal a fatal blow. It was a mere warning to deter intruders from going any further but, being alone, wounded and on the run it may as well been the same thing.

He was now left in a dire position where, if he did nothing he would probably get caught by the nameless creatures that were nipping on his heels while his next attempt to cross the hallway could be his last.

Uriel studied the floor tiles in front of him as best he could but keeping his focus with impending threat right behind him was no easy feat.

The carvings on the floor were all of the same size and there wasn't a hint as to which path could be the safest. Uriel then followed the path with symbols that were familiar to him and it turned to be the right choice as no more traps were activated.

The fact that he needed to study the carvings before taking a step only delayed him, he would have loved to think that he figured out the correct path thanks to his extensive knowledge in archaeology, but in truth he knew he had just taken a gamble.

Jumping from tile to tile the path ahead forked into three different passages, one for each set of symbols. The one chosen by Uriel led to a small chamber, probably the size of a classroom, with some clay vases on the walls and miscellaneous objects laying on the floor.

Most of those objects were arrow tips, drywood sticks and shards of pottery. Each and every single one of those items could hold immeasurable cultural value, yet Uriel was too pained and frightened to be swayed by his greed.

He wheezed out as he walked forward, but was then stopped when the foreboding sound of stone grinding alerted him.