Dungeon Raider System

Learning that Mister Scofield was alive sent Uriel into an inner turmoil and he fell silent for an entire minute without being able to take his eyes from the brightly lit candle while he pondered the implications of Soulfire's words.

He was correct, information was truly more valuable than credits, but he questioned himself as to why the stupidly handsome man decided to give him the information he wanted without asking anything in return.

"Thanks for telling me this, I truly appreciate it. But now that you gave me this piece of information there's really no need for us to help you in any way and the only reason I would go back to the city is to have a chat with him and confirm he's alright."

"Huh? This isn't the information I promised as payment. I just showed this candle to let you know your friend is alright." Soulfire looked at Uriel as if distrust was out of character from Uriel when it was actually his true nature.

'It's a show of good faith, then.' Uriel sighed and looked at the other candles on the table. They were all similar to each other and recognizing them would be impossible, but Soulfire didn't hesitate to name the person whose soul was linked to the specific candle Uriel looked at.

Most of the people Soulfire mention didn't hold any meaning to Uriel, even if he did met them before, but there was one among them that stood out the most.

"This one is Lightbringer's." Soulfire said with a troubled expression on his face while he pointed at a candle that held a dimly lit flame.

"What is the meaning of this?" Uriel tilted his head in confusion.

"I know he's your friend, but he..."

"I know he's a jerk and the one who caused more deaths than we can count. I want to know why is his candle so weak." Uriel glared at Soulfire before he started drifting out of topic.

"This is what a candle looks like when someone is about to die, but there's something strange with this one. You see, I made this candle just a short while before the city fell and it was fine, but after a while it started fainting to the point where now the fire is struggling to survive."

"It doesn't make sense, we all saw him and he looked pretty when he took down Jon and Mister Scofield at the same time."

"It actually does make sensed, but before I tell you this I need to know I can count with your help in rebuilding our city." Soulfire showed the palms of his hands in a helpless gesture expecting Uriel to accept on the spot, but he instead turned to Luna.

"What do you think?"

"By what you have told us about 'him', I can only assume he's going through with his word. Maybe Sam tried to oppose his will and this is the consequences of his actions." Uriel immediately grasped the meaning of Luna's words. After all, he spent a long while with Water warlock tagging along within him. Surprisingly, Nika too understood their words and spoke out loud.

"Sam's soul is being consumed, he's dying." She nodded. Despite possessing a trait that relied on possession to become useful, Nika's knowledge about the matter was limited to say the least.

It wasn't what she learned about possessions what let her grasp the meaning behind that candle, but the fact that the more time she spent within Uriel's shadow the more she learned about her own trait, especially now that she was tethered to a stone statue inside his trait.

The link between Nika and Uriel had grown stronger in time to the point where she could feel how much flux energy Uriel had left and somewhat understand his emotions. She knew that possessing Uriel didn't mean to be able to control him in any way, but when Uriel spent up to the last drop of his flux energy Nika learned something that filled her with dread.

It was that despite Uriel's lack of energy, she could still feed upon him though instead of draining his flux it was his very soul the one providing her with nourishment. That's why the moment Uriel fainted she immediately exited his shadow and also why she was now inclined to help Soulfire.

"That was also my theory." Soulfire said earnestly, now troubled for having one of his best bargaining chip taken away from him, but he was far from over. "There's more I can offer than just the candles you see in front of you.

Thanks to my trait I can also communicate for a brief period with recently deceased people I met when they were still alive and there's plenty more information I could offer to you in exchange for your cooperation."

"And what would that cooperation look like?" Uriel was now interested, now fully aware of the value of Soulfire's trait.

"We just need one small thing from you..." Soulfire took a look around.

"No way! We just fought tooth and nail to prevent those assholes from stealing our ship and now you're asking us for the same thing!"

"Why is everyone after my baby?" Medusa pouted.

"It's... complicated. I'm sure you've noticed you guys were the last ship to arrive in this city."

"And?" Uriel asked in annoyance.

"Up until our city fell, the megacity of Hollywood was in a privileged location. Being the last city to the west meant access to the Pacific ocean, which in turn meant natural resources such as fresh fish."

"Hang on a minute, I thought the sea was too dangerous to sail." Medusa butted in.

"It is, which also explains why fish is so expensive. The other day I wanted to make lightly fried swordfish steaks the other day and I almost fell on my butt when I saw the price tag! But the shopkeeper explained that two ascended hunters died in that fishing trip, so I guess it was a bargain." Soulfire continued with a wry smile.

'Fucking rich people...' Uriel gritted his teeth at the thought of the opulent citizens of the city getting their fancy meals and gourmet dishes at the expense of hunters lives, but then he realized something. The one thing he liked about the megacity of Hollywood was precisely that as long as someone had the means, anything was possible.

He saw Jon ask for the most ridiculous things, like a specific brand of whisky from before the arrival, and the hotel would deliver without so much as batting an eye. Then Uriel reminded the long bill racked up by the holy rank hunter and that Uriel himself only saw it as a hefty sum, but didn't even question himself where did all that stuff came from and his face paled.

'Am I one of those people now?' Although Uriel refrained himself from spending any money while he was in the five star hotel with Jon, he still used his money to buy Serum despite it being heavily controlled by the government. It was something he needed and had the means to pay for it, but only now did he understood that he didn't just get it out of thin air.

Someone who also needed the serum probably failed to receive it and was probably cursing at the 'rich people' that took it from them.

'Could it be the same with my trait?' He asked himself. 'Nika thinks the museum in my trait is located somewhere in Mexico. I have yet to confirm it, but if it's truly a physical place and not an ethereal one like I thought, then where is the stuff I'm buying from the souvenir shop coming from? Am I taking it from someone else?

What about the skill I didn't get to activate?' The nature of Uriel's trait had always been a mystery to him. All he knew was that his trait didn't work like that of most people, but other than testing its limits Uriel had neglected studying it.

Taking Soulfire's long rant about the commodities that could no longer be bought in the city due to the Mapple corp. failing to restock the shops as a chance to check his system, Uriel quickly entered his trait making it look as though he was spacing out.

With all the visible changes that took place in his museum whenever he unlocked a new feature, it was unnecessary for Uriel to check the skills listed in the system. Especially since they almost never changed and for the longest time he only had Dash and Raindance, though while the former was his bread and butter, the latter he was never able to use due to lacking enough flux energy.

It was well known in the hunter community that the reason why only heavenly rank hunters seemed to be able to activate skills was that they lacked the flux energy to do so, but since the system asked him whether he wanted to activate Repentance all of a sudden in the middle of the battle Uriel figured there had to be a hidden condition to activate it.