Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 763: The big secret Part 1
The day Mike Hathaway lost his family was the worst day of his life, but that lasted only until the next morning when the Hathaway conglomerate informed him he was the next in the succession line to an ancient legacy kept a secret in his family for generations.
The secret was as concerning as it was difficult to believe, but what came next was even worse as the responsibility to carry on with the legacy of his family turned their sins into his.
Without so much as a full day to mourn his family, the six year old Mike was led to a cave wearing nothing but a blindfold by the same butler that saved his life the day before. The cave was musty and the air was stale, that was the extent of what he gathered from the inside of the cave owned by his family.
Next thing he knew, an overwhelming pain was followed by the awakening of an ancient power inside of him that shifted his tender body into a killing machine that would counter any attack without fail.
The feeling of power would have been intoxicating, especially to a six year old, but with the patience and loving guidance of his butler he was able to live a somewhat normal life and he grew up to be a normal teenager, one that could harness the power of flux on a subconscious level that also happened to own one of the most important conglomerates in the entire world, that is.
Year after year he was taken to the same cave where the same experience would be repeated until the day he became an adult, where the butler failed to take him back to the mansion.
For a full minute he hesitated about whether or not he should wear off the blindfold since it was forbidden, but he was left with little choice as returning by himself would have been impossible without the sense of sight.
What he saw on that cave left him scarred beyond what words could describe.
Scattered all over the cave were hundreds of human remains, mostly piles of bones with a few old rags in between. Just the sight of skeletons and corpses wasn't enough to face the young current CEO of the Hathaway conglomerate, but an ear piercing scream birthed from the very core of his soul echoed in the cave when he saw the body of his butler besides him.
Both his eyes were missing and his face was contorted in the most painful expression the human body was capable of creating.
Mike Hathaway dropped on the ground in a futile attempt to help the man that had been so kind to him throughout his entire life without even caring about the dozens of fresh bodies nearby whose faces were frozen in the same expression as that of his butler.
That day changed the meaning of 'the worst day of his life' as he finally understood that no matter how much money or power he had, things could always become worse.
But they could also become better.
"If only I could open this damned door." Hathaway muttered while looking at the ancient carvings on the cave guarded by his family for generations. He didn't know what killed the people in that cave, only that it was strong, fast, unnoticeable and also, he was somehow immune to it.
After the city of Texas fell and the air blockade enforced by Sam caused the Mapple corp. to return to Europe Mike didn't think much of it other than the business opportunities that opened in front of his company. Money had little meaning to him as he had enough in his personal account to be able to destabilize the global market with just one spending spree.
However, when the city of New Texas was founded and word reached him about their university researching ancient artifacts he realized it was his chance to finally unveil the mysteries beneath the old cave that demanded so much blood over the years.
After a sizeable donation Mike signed up for college in hopes of finding a way to open the sealed cave and achieve his calling, fate, or whatever it was the reason why his butler always took him to the cave.
Unfortunately for him, despite putting all of his effort in his studies the subject of anthropology turned out to be too difficult for him and the only silver lining were the friends he made along the way. They helped him overcome the sorrow of losing anyone who meant anything to him in his life and he was finally starting to be himself again.
But that lasted only until the fateful day where he met 'him'.
His so called friends abandoned him when they felt Uriel's murderous eyes dawn upon them and although Hathaway thought life was meaningless, he was afraid to die for the first time in his life. It could be said that was also the worst day of his life, but after his epiphany, he stopped counting bad days and just kept going on.
A spiteful person would have held a grudge against Uriel for driving away his friends, but Hathaway realized he actually did a favor to him since real friends would have not abandoned him in the face of danger. Because of that, Mike felt the urge to apologize to Uriel thinking he faced a harsh reprimand by Professor Nika.
By the time Mike Hathaway wanted to notice, he had new friends, real friends, and was finally starting to get the grasp of Pangeotis' lectures. Not just that, he also found some information about the cave owned by his family. Not that he cared much about it anymore.
When the expedition to the Mojave desert took place and he helped Uriel defeat Sam, Hathaway silently mourned Scoundrel's demise and returned to New Texas where he learned Uriel's name by coincidence.
"Uriel Sage...," Hathaway muttered biting his thumb to cope with the anxiety. If it wasn't for the study group and Uriel's help and company he would have probably given up in life and everything would have been fine if not for one single detail.
While Sage enjoyed a good academic reputation, things between them were bound to change forever when Hathaway learned that he was 'that' Sage, the one who opened the doors of Chichén Itzá for the Mapple corp. "I guess we're enemies now."
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnovel(.)com
