Dungeon Raider System

Kristina had no idea what was so special about the herb Luna just mentioned and neither did Uriel or Nika, which is why she was shocked to see their moods shifting in an instant and getting ready for combat despite them being supposedly in the clear. To them, the fact that Luna mentioned the name of a herb was already reason enough to raise concern, but her letting out an 'uh-oh' was the ultimate danger sign.

Nika pointed her gun at everywhere and nowhere in particular ready to open fire at the slightest movement while Uriel kept the Red thread of fate on one hand and the Magnum revolver on the other, mentally prepared to activate Dash to react to whatever danger Luna had just warned them about.

The entire place was mute as though someone had switched off the sounds of nature, a hint that something was going on, yet it took them almost a minute to notice that there were no trees in sight neither of the trail they just followed.

"Yes, this herb is mentioned in the lore. It's completely harmless, but if you step in one you're not getting out of the woods until morning comes." She spoke when they took notice of the situation.

"Great, we're stuck. And here I thought I could be visiting the Louvre by tomorrow." Uriel let out dejectedly.

"The Louvre? Are you insane!?" Nika exclaimed.

"There's not need for you to pretend you know what I'm talking about. It's a museum and we all know you're not interested in them." Uriel mocked Nika, though the disbelieving expression didn't disappear from her face.

"I know it's a museum, but there's no way we're going anywhere near Paris!"

"Why? There's lots of cultural places that might help me understand better what happened during the arrival and there should be plenty of new artifacts to discover. With some luck we might stumble upon a dungeon or two. I know exploring them is less than ideal without the rest of the team, but we can at least check them out." Uriel explained his reasoning and only then did Nika's expression soften.

"Listen, that city is one of the most dangerous places on the planet. No one can get near that place, not even the Mapple corporation dares to go nearby. Heck! it's even a no fly zone." Nika explained.

"Is there a titan rank cryptid?" Luna asked oozing interest despite her accustomed poker face.

"That is precisely what makes it so dangerous, we don't know what's in there. I don't know much about the subject, but I heard that the entire country of France was hit really hard during the arrival and the city of Paris became one of the few known PNRs."

"PNR?" Uriel echoed.

"It's short for point of no return." Explained Kristina.

"You're a lieutenant in the army and you didn't know that!?" Nika scolded, then continued after lingering for a few seconds. "back then I didn't think much of this, but if you ask anyone about France they will most likely tell you god doesn't like that country. Now we know gods are likely real, I think that might be the actual reason."

Whether or not Nika's suspicions were correct, that didn't change that the city of Paris being considered a PNR meant it was impossible to visit the museum Uriel so dearly wished to visit. It was a difficult pill to swallow, but Uriel's plate was already full with things he needed to do and he could worry about the ones he wanted to do after sorting them.

The entire landscape was carpeted with the strange herb Luna identified as the one mentioned in the French lore and for some odd reason, the sky seemed to turn into a velvet color that lasted for the rest of the night.

Their sleeping accommodations were modest, but it was a peaceful night that went on uneventfully allowing the hunters to get a good night's rest and be ready to depart as soon as the first rays of the sun licked the surface.

Exiting the forest was easy, though Uriel was annoyed that their journey was delayed for an entire night and that they lost their way, though it was Kristina the one who noticed this as the flux signatures she perceived had drastically changed their positions.

This meant that either everybody else moved or that they moved throughout the night. The latter seemed to be the less likely option, but taking into consideration that cryptid's had mysterious abilities it was bound to be the right answer.

Just as they feared, they had moved hundreds of kilometers to the east in a single night and without them noticing which meant they were closer to Saint Germain than Uriel would have liked and further away from their destination.

They kept on their journey up north faster than jogging but slower than running in order to save stamina and to avoid getting caught by surprise once more. Thanks to Kristina, they were able to spot several cryptids along the way, though they avoided them like a plague as they didn't feel comfortable in a country most people deemed as a place forgotten by god.

Uriel would have liked to argue against the idea of a god being involved in whatever happened to France and point out that the French had always been considered a rebellious culture which probably turned them into enemies of the world government, but the more he saw of the landscape the more he second guessed himself.

To call it a wasteland would have been doing that wounded land a favor. It was filthy, filled with debris of unknown origin, the air became stale and suffocating and gusts of brown dust crossed the land in a silent whistle. Whatever buildings had ever existed in those places were reduced to a blackened rubble that made it impossible to even guess if the place they were standing on was once a town or a city.

Their travel across France was slow, tiring and cumbersome. They felt an unexplainable fatigue and were constantly attacked by a harrowing hunger that no matter how much they ate could not be satisfied to the point where even Uriel, who usually paid close attention to his spending in the souvenir shop, couldn't care any less about trites and credits and simply bought whatever he thought could subdue their hunger in bulk.

Things weren't looking so great, especially for Luna who's chubby appearance was a thing of the past as the days went by with them getting lost in more than one occasion. At first they nagged at Kristina for doing a poor job at guiding them and Uriel took over in leading them, only to become even more lost as his compass didn't work.

Without the ability to see the sun they didn't know how many days or weeks passed with them wandering around in constant suffering. In Nika's words, that entire country could as well be considered hell on earth and the rest agreed with unmotivated nods and that was the last time anyone opened their mouths to speak as they just focused on their suffering.

Uriel had bags under his eyes and his face sharpened, Kristina was pale as a ghost making her look much similar to how she used to look when she lived in the slums, Nika was so thin she could be considered a shadow of herself, but Luna was just back to her original healthy weight and was actually happy with the hourglass figure she gained after losing a few kilos.

It wasn't uncommon for hunters to rapidly gain or lose weight, especially for ascended hunters since their bodies were less efficient to store energy and relied heavily on body fat. Luna's former weight gain was a means to cope with the fact that she was always surrounded by heavenly rank hunters and she had deemed that being chubby was a small sacrifice to keep up with her friends.

Or so she said to herself, though in reality she was just addicted to eating which is why of all those present, despite being the only one in a healthy weight she was the most affected. Food felt like air in her mouth and it didn't fill her stomach, she tried to keep a hold on her emotions but it got to a point where she couldn't endure it any longer and simply turned into her full werewolf form out of nowhere.

Uriel was so tired he couldn't find a reason to care about that. Nika raised a hand in an attempt to stop Luna from converting, but her strength faltered and the arm fell limp by her side.

Luna craned her neck up and let out a prolonged howl that finished in a coarse roar, her silvery fur slowly becoming stained with the thin dust that scourged the land and what followed managed to snap everyone out of their reveries as Luna's howl was replied from an untold distance with another howl.

One much deeper and evidently from a much larger creature.