Dungeon Raider System

Somewhere in La mancha, in a place whose name I dread to remember, a gentleman hunter lived not long ago, one of those who has a hunting rifle and an old pistol on a shelf. Said gentleman was named Alonso and he lived a well lived life until his advanced age, yet he never had a spouse nor did he have children, just an old crush to whom he wrote the most romantic text messages receiving nothing but emojis in return.

There was, however, a reason why his crush never returned the favor and it had nothing to do with his looks which were actually above average. He also wasn't poor but the contrary, as he had inherited his parents state when he was younger. A large apartment building that allowed Alonso to never work a day in his life and devote himself entirely to his hobby, which was the actual deal breaker for his unrequited love: Manga.

His entire apartment was filled with merchandise from anime, manga and the likes. Not just any merchandise, but the most exclusive he could find online which made him the top collector in his entire country. An expensive hobby like that that could only be afforded by the occasional sale of some of the apartments in his building, eventually leaving him with just one third of the building he previously owned as a whole.

An occasional sushi, prepackaged more often than not, instant ramen most nights, eggs and bacon on Saturdays, canned lentils on Fridays and some sausages added on Sundays consumed most of what was left of the rent he got from his tenants.

Living such a life meant Alonso had little to no need to ever leave his home, yet that never stopped him from dreaming about wonderful adventures in a different world. He saw himself as the knight in shiny armor rescuing damsels in distress, fighting evil and leaving his mark in the world. Each story he read filled his mind with longing to the point where there was no space for anything else.

Rumor has it that whoever met him in person considered Alonso to be a kind soul, but the most awkward person to be around. Some even claimed that reading so many manga had dried his brain and they would call him crazy behind his back, sometimes even to his face.

But all that happened before the world ending event commonly referred to as the arrival.

When the cryptids appeared society collapsed for a long while. Everyone struggled daily just to survive at the cost of adjusting their morals. They gave up on their humanity and performed the most heinous acts in the name of survival. Stealing from the rich and from the poor, killing others out of fear and manipulating the weak for personal gain.

The period between the arrival and the time where the first megacities were built had no name since every single human that lived through those perilous times wanted to forget it ever happened.

But not Alonso, he was among the lucky ones who just happened to be near a dying cryptid and acquired a trait that allowed him to turn his dreams into a reality.

He traveled across Spain rescuing people without asking for anything in return and before he even noticed he was the commander of the Tercio, the Spanish equivalent for the Rangers. Hundreds of people believed in him, not because of his sizeable strength, but thanks to the influence of his impeccable morals and kind nature.

Unfortunately, just because he was living the life of adventure he always dreamed about didn't mean he left his old costumes behind and it wasn't long until the very people deemed him to be not right in the head.

They participated in his crusade to save people and even played along his delusions, putting up a facade in front of him that everything was perfect and everyone got along, though only for the profit that ensued. Alonso was a generous hunter and didn't take for himself more than his fair share, a rare consideration very few powerful hunters had.

That is how Don Alonso, the mad hunter, got to where he was now. Leading a big hunting party in the middle of a city that despite being completely uninhabited seemed completely normal. Had he not known better he would have thought it was the 'siesta' time where his countrymen would take a nap at the same time, but with so many missing people reports it became apparent there was something ominous happening over there.

"Where are my friends!? Where are they!?" Luna cried in her voice with hints of a deeper voice that couldn't possibly come from such a small frame.

"Calm down, they are here with us. You are fine, everything's fine." The female doctor that had been taking care of her said.

"We are in danger! You need to tell them, uhm... you need to warn them..." Luna breathed heavily, what little flux energy she had barely allowed her to remain awake. Had it not been for her binge eating at any occasion, her fat reserves may have not been substantial enough to even keep her alive this long.

"Soothe yourself, dear Luna. We may not be the ones you're looking for, but we are also your friends," Alonso said as he crouched right by Luna. "now, what were you saying about danger?"

"Uhm," Luna scanned her surroundings with distrust, then noticed she was in a comfortable tent, laying on a sleeping bed and there was a doctor nearby. Also, other than feeling tired she felt completely fine and they even knew her name which meant they weren't lying. Despite logic telling her to trust those people, her gut told her they weren't safe which made it difficult for her to compose herself, yet she somehow was able to calm herself enough to speak the following words. "the stench of the dead is all around us."

Alonso's face became pale as he rushed out the tent looking frantically all around the camp they set in the middle of the city. The previous quiet of the abandoned city that gave him peace now unsettled him and he couldn't help but notice a few things he had missed before, like the fact that despite the place being abandoned for months the lawn seemed to have been mowed just yesterday.

Not just that, inside the buildings were obviously abandoned, but on the outside they seemed perfectly fine which was unlikely considering the effects of the weather and overgrown vines usually had in concrete.

Without any meddling words Alonso activated his trait which allowed him to see different spectrums of light and reality hit him like a truck. The best way to describe his experience is to compare it with someone pouring paint thinner on the top of a painting, causing the colors to melt and be mixed until the true city was revealed to him.

Buildings were cracked and devoid of color, filled with black moss and overgrown vegetation, but more importantly, corpses. Hundreds if not thousands of bodies laying in plain sight, yet no one but him was able to see it.

"Recall the Tercio, we are leaving this damned place."

"Mister Alonso, I advice against listening to a word she says. She's just a child with a concussion or something and there's still money to be made. I bet they won't be happy if they find out it's just because of a random girl's ramblings." The female doctor pleaded. Although they truly loved Alonso as their leader, most of his quests usually ended in them barely breaking even and this was the first time they hit a jackpot with an entire town to salvage just for themselves.

She, like the rest of the Tercio, knew Alonso's trait and although it was useful in some cases, it usually caused him to see things where there was nothing which amounted to his reputation of being crazy caused men to laugh behind his back. Watching him chase away 'ghosts' no one could see or speak to himself at night wasn't unusual and the doctor thought he was having one of his episodes and she wanted to avoid the embarrassment that came after his worries proved to be in vain.

Little did she know the sobbing 'girl' curling up on her bedroll was actually a hunter in her own right and not just a cryptozoologist, but the one responsible for feeding the most amount of data to the Cryptid hunting agency in history and whatever she shared amounted to nothing next to all the knowledge about myths and folklore she could recite by memory. Yet the most important thing she ignored was that Luna's keen sense of smell had never been wrong and if she said they were in danger, that was nothing but the cold hard truth.

Thankfully for everyone, Alonso ignored the doctor's yappings and mounted his horse, calling back his men as he frantically toured the city looking for any cryptids that may be hiding in plain sight and as luck would have it, it wasn't long until he accomplished just that.