Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 426: Physical training on the wetlands

"Alright maggots! Keep on moving or I’ll shred you to pieces!" Uriel shouted in a much similar fashion to Captain Silvermane during physical training class.

"You mean, more than I already am?" Rusty scoffed as he struggled to walk on his own. With just one leg, he was forced to use improvised crutches, but the muddy terrain made it incredibly difficult.

"At first I thought you were cruel, but now I’m not sure you’re even human! How can you put a crippled man through all this? Don’t you have a heart?" Young cried.

"He may be a cripple now, but if you keep babying him so much he’ll never rank up. He’s also a hunter and must be determined enough to keep fighting even when torn apart." Uriel replied, unmoved by both Young’s tears or Rusty’s struggles.

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

"You don’t know what you’re talking about, kid. You’ve never had your leg torn apart by a cryptid." Rusty added.

"You’d be surprised." Nika muttered, causing the rest of the unit to wonder what was that about, but before they could ask any questions Uriel began shouting again.

"It’s not kid, It’s Lieutenant Sage and if I tell you to walk, you walk even without legs. Understood?" Uriel glared at the man.

"This is unnecessarily cruel, If you insist on doing this I’ll tell Colonel Sword." Young said with a defiant tone of voice that lasted only until Uriel replied.

"And who do you think asked me to do this? She asked me to put you guys in line and help rusty become an ascended. If you guys insist on refusing to obey my orders I have full authority to impart any sort of punishment I see fit and yes, that includes you too Nika."

"Me? I don’t even know why I’m doing this, I’m already a heavenly rank and this isn’t going to make me any stronger."

"You may think that way, but that’s not the case. From my discussions with Luna I gathered that in order to rank up, a hunter must meet a few necessary conditions. The easiest one is to be exposed to vanishing cryptids, the higher the rank the better."

"I know that already." Nika shrugged.

"Yes, but that’s not all. Listen well guys, Professor Lamar says traits can settle and only certain people can rank up, but that’s not the case. The most likely explanation as to why only some people can rank up while others can’t it’s because their bodies aren’t prepared."

"And how can we prepare our bodies?" Mayhem, who was also under Uriel’s command, asked.

"That’s easy, physical training and also, this..." Uriel replied as he began channeling flux without activating his trait or any skill whatsoever. He was just spending a small amount of flux energy at a steady rate, but since he was now a heavenly rank hunter most cryptids that were able to pick up on his energy signature escaped.

"You shouldn’t do that..." Nika said when she noticed many of the birds that mimicked sounds to lure people into the forest flew away at the same time.

"Actually, that’s the reason why I brought you here. You need to do the same thing I’m doing and keep it for as long as you can."

"But, we’ll alert the cryptids nearby."

"That’s the whole point!"

When Cassandra asked Uriel to put the troublemakers in line he was tempted to refuse on the spot. He was already sick and tired of their whining and thought he couldn’t take it anymore, but then he realized it was an incredible opportunity to experiment and confirm his theories about ranking up and get a better grasp of the underlying nature of traits.

It wasn’t necessarily his favored field of study, but the possible implications it could have were too important to let the opportunity pass. Not to mention that Cassandra also offered to compensate him, which also triggered his greedy character.

He prepared himself mentally and took them at a distance from the camp, but not that far they couldn’t ask for help in a pinch. The idea was to push them to fight beyond their limits on a safe-ish environment, but as soon as both Uriel and Nika began channeling flux energy something strange happened.

It was as though the very swamp had become alive, the insects and animals all ran for their lives and even the beast rank cryptids did the same, but it was too late to abort the mission.

The first wave of cryptids that showed up was comprised exclusively of monster rank cryptids and even though they were on the same level of a regular ascended, cryptids were a lot stronger than humans and they also showed in big numbers.

"I don’t think this was such a good idea." Said Nika as she gazed at the stampede coming their way. It wasn’t the first time they experienced something of the sorts, but back then they had Jon Hunter to back them up.

"What are you waiting for? Open fire!" Uriel commanded and his words were followed by a barrage of bullets coming from both Rusty and Mayhem. "Are you expecting a written invitation?" Uriel asked Young who remained frozen in fear.

"I... I can’t do this!" She replied as she turned to leave, only to be grabbed by a very annoyed Uriel who threw her into the cryptids path.

"What?" He asked Nika who gasped at him.

"Did you just... threw a soldier at those things?"

"Don’t be so shocked, they’re just monster ranks." Uriel fired a few shots killing a handful of enemies with ease, but his point was completely ignored by Nika who remained agape.

"You’re acting just like Luna, what happened to you?"

"Don’t worry, they’ll be fine." He replied, but then a thumping sound similar to a huge drum being played echoed in the swamp. It was slow and distant, but the worrying part wasn’t the sound, it was that they could clearly see trees falling down from the direction the sound came.