Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 198: The first world

A few gas lanterns shone a faint light in a place that seemingly sucked up all the light. There was no wind, no light, nothing that could give them any information about their surroundings. It was an empty world that somewhat reminded Uriel of Xibalbá, but at the same time it gave off a different feeling.

"What can you tell us, Sam?" Uriel asked.

"There’s a white cloud and a black cloud on top of our heads."

"Whew!" Uriel heaved a sigh of relief and sat on the ground.

"Is that good?" Nika asked.

"Of course it is, it means we’re on the first world which should be the easiest. This world should be small and there should be four seas ruled by powerful creatures and at the middle a single tree. As long as we don’t mess with them we should be safe."

"How do you know that? How does any of this make any sense to any of you!?" Janett cried. She had recovered from her minor injuries and could now walk on her own, but she was still in distress.

Humans were equipped with a sense of resilience that allowed them to get accustomed to all sorts of situations, but Janett’s life had always been boring and in just a couple of days she had seen much more than she would have liked.

Hordes of cryptids, human-like cryptids, an entity nosferatu vampire, then the relics, the veil and now she was in a place that defied all logic with people that, somehow, remained completely calm.

"Because, it seems the native American mythology is built on the dungeons. It’s as if the people from the ancient era wanted to preserve any information they could about dungeons, without making their existence a known fact."

"You’re insane!" Janett replied, forgetting for a second that her very life depended on Uriel.

"Uhm.... It’s pretty much the same thing our government does. They always mention cryptids and even the general population knows about them, but a great portion of the people think it’s just a lie to keep people trapped inside the city." Luna said.

"I think you’re right. People from the slums don’t believe in the existence of cryptids and only the few old people that were there during ’the arrival’ know for a fact it’s true. The same must have happened with the people from the ancient era, they took facts and turned them into myths." Uriel added.

"So, you’re saying that we’re now relying on the old tales of a bunch of people that didn’t even believe any of this was true?"

"Precisely, in David Crockett’s diary there was a mention of a tree and that adds up with the mythology."

"There is a tree over there!" Sam pointed towards a certain direction and the group started walking.

The sound of their footsteps resonated in the vast darkness and the sound of something heavy being dragged followed them.

"Do you really need to do that, Luna?" Sam grunted in annoyance at Luna, who was dragging Shaker who was wounded and unconscious.

"He’s too big." Luna replied.

"That’s what she said, haha! I got ya!" Sam laughed at his silly joke, but no one followed.

"I was hoping this part wasn’t true," Uriel complained when he heard chirping at a distance. "why did it have to be bugs?"

Sam, who was distracted by his own joke, failed to warn everyone of the presence of the insects in front of them but he threw a lit flare in front of them after Uriel complained.

"Chill, bro. It’s not cryptids."

"I know."

"Don’t tell me you’re afraid of bugs!" Sam couldn’t hold his laughter anymore. "Who knew you were such a coward!"

"You shouldn’t be calling anyone a coward, don’t you remember when..." Luna tried to remind him of all the times he cried and sobbed during their past incursions, but Sam hurriedly covered her mouth. Read new adventures at novelbuddy

"I got it! I’m sorry for making fun of you, I was just trying to lighten the mood."

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Although Sam apologized sincerely, Uriel had no use for words. All he wanted was to avoid stepping on any insects, but the closer they got to the tree at the center the more bugs appeared until the ground was carpeted in bugs.

There were scorpions, spiders, centipedes, crickets and particularly big ants, though they were all just bugs and didn’t emit any flux energy.

"I prefer the kind of bugs that vanish after you shoot them." Uriel said with a wry smile fighting against the urge to puke after every cracking step.

The crunching sound of insects being stepped on was nasty, but the worst part was feeling bugs crawling all over his body. After every few steps Uriel paused to shake insects off from his clothes, though most of them were just a figment of his imagination.

Shaker was being mercilessly dragged through the ground by Luna and he was completely covered with bugs from head to toe, but fortunately for him he remained unconscious. Oddly enough, the only one who seemed comfortable with so many critters crawling all over them was Nika.

"This is nothing, it’s just a little ticklish."

"According to the Comanche mythology, the first world is where the bugs were created.

It’s the simplest world with the simplest creatures, but it’s also the world where the evil shapeshifter demon was created, let’s not get separated in case one of those things tries to infiltrate our group." Uriel warned the group, though he was mostly just trying to take his mind off of the disgusting creatures in the ground.

"Shapeshifter demon? Like the skinwalker!?" Janett paled, though no one replied. They were all under pressure and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, but her comments were starting to become increasingly annoying.

"There it is, the ’axis mundi’" Uriel said while he pointed at the tree.

"The what? Why don’t you explain things in proper English?" Nika scoffed at him.

"Really? You’re one to talk! Every time you get scared or flustered you start swearing in Spanish." Uriel glared at her.

"That’s because I’m from Mexico! But you’re not from Dorkland, are you?"

"Dorkland?" Uriel asked.

"The vatican, where those pompous assholes speak Latin."

"I’m impressed you knew it was Latin. It means ’world axis’, that tree is supposedly the first thing ever created and it stands at the center of the universe."

"It looks like a regular poplar tree to me." Sam shrugged.

"A poplar! That’s why this place is called the Alamo!" Nika jumped in excitement, loudly crushing insects when she landed.

"That’s possible. Now, to exit this place all we need to do is touch the tree."

Everyone gathered near the tree but before anyone touched it, Luna forcefully threw Shaker towards the tree and the huge hunter disappeared instantly.

"It was an... uhm... experiment." She shrugged.