Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 630: Truth and honesty Part 2

It wasn't that she expected Uriel to always come to the rescue or to fix all their messes but the opposite. After hunting cryptids for so long she was the only one who had yet to become stronger.

Even Nika who already started as a heavenly rank became stronger by practicing her trait in the shadowlands, but despite starting her hunting career with the advantage of being a hybrid she had soon fallen behind and now felt like a hindrance to everyone.

It was easy for everyone to notice whenever Luna was throwing a tantrum since she would start showing signs of shapeshifting. It was precisely the lack of this phenomenon which made Uriel understand that although her words were harsh, they didn't come just from a place of emotion but she had given it a deep thought.

As usual, Luna's inner world was a mystery to everyone and Uriel turned to look towards Nika as though looking for an answer.

"Don't look at me, I tried." Nika shrugged.

"I understand where she comes from," Medusa spoke dubiously. She liked to nag at her friends whenever they made mistakes, but not when it came to their decisions. "you relinquished the kind of power that could have meant so much not just to you, but to our company and maybe even the world."

"That's nonsense. Had I said yes I would have been forced to stay in Texas and the company would have been bound to the city."

"Of course I understand and Luna does too. The problem is that you so casually dismissed a possibility most people can only dream about." Medusa sighed thinking about how can the same person that figured out the existence of dungeons by himself could also be so dumb to understand something so simple as envy.

The tension between the founding members of the Dungeon Raiders was still under effect when they arrived at the governor's office after being summoned by Lister who immediately noticed how everyone was mad at Uriel.

"I assume everything went according to plan, your plan." Lister spoke in a calm manner, yet he couldn't hide his frustration after being forced to reveal the presence of cryptids inside the city.

"Not quite." Uriel started fiddling with a small contraption comprised of four spherical metal balls that acted as pendulums. The force applied after each hit made the ball on the other side move and started the movement again.

"Please, don't steal any more stuff from my office." Uriel thought it was funny, but Lister clearly didn't enjoy Uriel being so touchy with his things and hid the contraption inside his drawer with a dejected sigh.

"Hey, you bastard! Why didn't you mention us in the press conference!?" Nika took a step forward and grabbed the governor by the collar causing Halstead to flinch, yet he calmed himself down as soon as Lister nodded at him.

"When Mister Raider here told me about the Roman empire I thought he was referring to his company as 'barbarian mercenaries' that could turn against the city. That's why I pulled all my influence to send as many hunters I could to the scene."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Nika softened the grip, but didn't let go.

"Our relationship with cryptids is symbiotic, in exchange for 'food' they're helping us conceal our energy signature, but that's only necessary if we have a strong holy rank hunter which we don't. Allegro has a strong trait and possesses many skills that can be applied into combat, but his flux reserve is way lower than it should.

This got me to realize that Mister Raider actually meant the cryptids that are acting as our city defense and that allowing them to exist here is only a hindrance to our holy rank hunter's growth." Lister explained, making Nika tilt her head.

"It's our fault, Nika. I wanted to lure an entity rank cryptid out and fight it in the open with as many witnesses as possible. Instead, we stumbled upon an horror level cryptid and after killing it..."

"You killed a horror level cryptid!?" Lister cut Uriel short, but Uriel continued as though nothing happened.

"Lots of entity rank poltergeists were released outside the building and they caused many casualties. It was an unfortunate event, but there was no way we could have foreseen it."

"Give me a second," Lister massaged his temple while pondering the situation. "It seems I was mistaken. I thought things went exactly as you expected, you warned me we would get attacked."

"Yes, but it was supposed to be just a small fray with more theatrics than actual fighting. The idea was to show the citizens who don't believe cryptids are real that they're wrong and to showcase our abilities in front of everyone." Uriel explained.

"But if the citizens were to find out you were the ones who released the cryptids trapped in that building your reputation would tank." Lister clicked his tongue.

"You're not going to threaten us with blackmail, are you?" Uriel placed a hand on Nika's shoulder to get her to release the governor, only to grab him by the collar as soon as he could.

"Why would I do something like that? It would also give you the same chance to expose me and that's something I can't afford. My public image was stained and I'm trying my best to turn this chaos into an opportunity. If I can get the people to channel their rage into something useful, they won't have any issues agreeing with my project to help the Jacobson company to rebuild the megacity of Texas."

"I see," Uriel nodded. "Where does that leave us?"

"I think it would be best to keep our collaboration in secret. This way, you can deal with your own PR team and increase your reputation with our city." Lister proposed.

"Do we have one of those? and more importantly, what are those?" Uriel turned to Nika who took charge of most of the company affairs.

"We do have a public relationship team, Emma is in charge of it now. I thought she was wasting her time in social media, but I decided to allocate a small portion of our budget to her when our company became more popular after she posted a picture of her receiving a bouquet of roses from Allegro."

"By the way, where is Allegro? I've been meaning to apologize to him for our misunderstanding the other day." Uriel lied through his teeth. What he actually wanted from the holy rank hunter was to learn the method he used to reach his rank.

"He's currently training." Lister lied in the same manner Uriel did, only for a completely different reason. While the holy rank hunter didn't sustain many injuries in his fight with Uriel as they were mostly shallow cuts, he did get seriously injured when the poltergeists escaped from the condemned building.

Lister, on behalf of the government, only admitted to a small portion of the actual victims caused by the cryptid outbreak and he also played down how many hunters perished or got injured while fighting against them.

Contrary to the Dungeon Raiders who had Luna by their side to help them figure out the cryptid's identity and weakness, local hunters were taken by surprise and had no time to even coordinate their efforts to the point where some of the casualties were caused by friendly fire.

There was also the matter of the Novorus company which disappeared from existence leaving no witness to tell the tale. If not for the fact that it was the only destroyed building and that not even a single hunter survived, Lister would have assumed it was caused by cryptids, but now he suspected they were targeted by another company.

"About our reward." Uriel extended the palm of his hand, but Lister looked the other way and scratched his cheek. Lister and Uriel had similar mannerisms it brought a chuckle to Nika who would have thought they were siblings if not for how different they looked.

"As you know, we're saving most of our funds for our project. I did manage to get you an interview with the interim General, but we'll have to meet them in person. I'll need a few minutes to deal with the paperwork left after the press conference and I'll meet you outside." Lister nodded at his secretary who accompanied them to the elevator.

They waited outside the city hall until Halstead showed up in a luxurious car both Uriel and Nika recognized as a Nikola. Their eyes brimmed at the sight of the precious car and by the time Lister showed up they had both made their minds on what they wanted to ask for instead of credits. Their greed and excitement was so thick it was palpable and Lister had no choice but to nod in reply.

"I should have seen this coming." Lister grumbled under his breath.

"All's well that ends well." Uriel shrugged.