Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 594: Underhanded dealings

"I must say, you have a lovely waiting hall." Were Soulfire's first words as soon as he entered the governor's office.

"Mister Jacobson, it's a pleasure to see you." Lister greeted the stupidly handsome man with a smile.

"The pleasure is all mine." Soulfire replied while looking at a beautiful painting that portrayed an old actor whose name was lost to time. Then, he turned his attention to a small glass orb on top of a shelf, then to a world map, then to anything and everything.

If not for his stature, his silver embroidered coat and the folder in his hands, one would think he was a five years old kid instead of a heavenly rank hunter.

"Please, take a seat." Lister invited, already feeling awkward by Soulfire's antsy behavior.

"I'm fine." Soulfire replied.

'I'm not.' Lister thought inwardly as he gritted his teeth, then turned his grimace into a smile. "I insist." This left Soulfire without the chance to fully appreciate the tastefully decorated office like he wanted without being rude and he did as the governor asked with a pouting face that made reading his emotions an easy feat.

"I'm here on behalf of the megacity of Texas to formally request your help to rebuild the city. The wall has only a few breaches and the rangers managed to keep most looters away. Rebuilding the wall should be easy and it would also make your city safer since we would cover your east side. Besides, we have access to a lost city, some low to medium POIs and even an orichalcum vein.

If you look at the folder, you'll find that the numbers are solid." Soulfire adopted a serious bearing as he recited the lines he memorized earlier which made him look like an entirely different person. As soon as his speech ended, he let out a sigh and went back to normal.

"I'm sorry, but I was under the impression that you came here to help." Lister had a hard time keeping a straight face as he could already feel a vein popping in his forehead.

"Help with what?" Soulfire tilted his head which made Lister almost blow out like a steam boiler.

"Our megacity is isolated, we can't get in touch with any other cities and tourists stopped coming. The only zeppelins that have come lately are just refugees, not even traders. We can't spare any hunters or resources to help others when we are in dire need of help ourselves." Lister explained while he pinched the bridge of his nose trying to keep an already starting headache at bay.

"If you take a look at this folder..." Not knowing how to reply, Soulfire resorted to repeat a part of his speech, something that Lister didn't allow.

"I've never heard of a lost city being rebuilt. Times are hard, Mister Jacobson. Megacities sometimes fall and there's nothing we can do about it but seek for shelter somewhere else and last for as long as we can until we have to move again." Lister said in his most tactful tone, but Soulfire wasn't ready to give up.

"Times are hard, indeed, but if every Megacity just think on what's best for them it won't be long until all of humanity fall.

it's precisely in hard times like this when brave hunters can become heroes, daring entrepreneurs can profit and city governors can rise!" Soulfire tapped the cherrywood table with his hand controlling his inhumane strength to avoid breaking such a lovely piece of furniture.

"Let me guess, you're the daring entrepreneur. Your company's business is building, is it not? What a coincidence!" Lister's voice oozed sarcasm and he dropped the nice guy act as he pointed at the door. "If there's nothing else, you may leave now."

"I'll be honest here," Soulfire too dropped his act, though it was the opposite of Lister. Instead of becoming more serious, his voice became sweeter and his face more relaxed. "It's not a coincidence." Soulfire said like he was revealing a full poker in a Texas hold'em game.

"I'm shocked." Lister said in an inexpressive monotone that would rival with Luna's.

"That's precisely why this can work. My father, may he rest in peace, was obsessed with making business in Texas and he even attempted to arrange a marriage. At the time I didn't know the reason why it was so important to him, but now I do and I will share it with you. There is an angel sealed below the city."

Lister's eyes widened and no matter how hard he tried, no words could escape his mouth. As a high rank official he was aware of the existence of such creatures but he never had the chance to meet one in person.

They were said to be creatures of unparalleled beauty and boundless power who fought against the first wave of cryptids during the arrival to protect humanity, though many of them still died and the few that survived were wounded.

The fact that humanity was protected by these creatures while they built the megacities was one of the best kept secrets in the government, but the one secret only a few trusted people knew in the entire world was what happened after the megacities were built.

Injured in gruesome ways, disheartened by the deaths of their comrades and tired after fighting for years against cryptids, the angels took refuge inside the megacities closest to the major dungeons to rest. By the time this happened many hunters had acquired their traits and humanity already reached a new level in technology thanks to the flux orbs.

Fearing that the angels would erase cryptids from existence, instead of helping them recover from their injuries and gather their strength, the government trapped them in underground facilities to be perpetually drained of their blood to produce the substance everyone knew as serum.

"Have you seen it?" Was all Lister managed to ask.

"No, not in person. There's plenty of warnings that breaking the seal would be too dangerous if the wall is breached. But even if the wall was in perfect condition, it's still risky to open the chamber. The only way we know about its existence is because someone stumbled upon the hidden facility by chance." Soulfire explained. freewebnøvel.coɱ

"I'm not sure if it will be enough, but I'll pull all the resources I can spare to help you." Lister stood up and shook Soulfire's hand with a firm grasp.

At the same time this conversation was taking place, but somewhere far away in the south hemisphere where not even the light of the sun could breach through the dense darkness Sam sat on top of a pile of corpses. His brimming golden eyes were now so powerful, not even the shadowlands could hide its secrets from him and he decided to make it his home for the time being.

After using his smite ability to defeat the titan level cryptid's avatar, Sam was left with so little flux he barely managed to escape before fainting. Thanks to Water warlock, he was now immortal and thanks to his holy rank his flux energy reserve was vast beyond imagination, but that only made his recovery more lengthy.

"I wonder how they're doing." Sam sighed, his sharp eyes pierced the horizon reaching as far as he wanted and the only thing that stopped him from being able to see the people he wanted to see was the curvature of the earth.

It was rare for him to think back of his former friends and it only happened when not even killing cryptids was enough to keep him entertained. After hunting alone in a place where no man could enter, flux orbs had no meaning to him and the only reason he continued hunting was out of boredom and to keep himself from feeling remorse for the unforgivable sins he committed.

Destroying a city and killing most of its inhabitants was a high price to pay to become a holy rank hunter, but after learning what the city did to his mother he would have done it for free. When his father told him about who his mother was and what happened to her whatever was left of Sam's love for humanity faded.

Even his grievance against Uriel became meaningless as a single thought filled his mind, releasing his mother from the cruel hands of the people she fell to protect.

"Why are you still here, child?" Another pair of yellowy eyes said. They weren't of a physical nature, but not even the mystical could hide from the lightbringer trait.

"Mind your own business, creature." Sam scoffed at the shadow titan like he was an annoyance instead of a dreadful titan and the yellowy eyes vanished, but not before uttering a single warning.

"Leave, now. This is not your home but mine and the light you carry is not welcome here. You would be wise to remember that the next time you think of coming here."

"Like I care about your stupid shadows." Sam clicked his tongue and extended his feathery wings made of the purest whited leaving behind the priceless flux orbs like they were nothing but cheap trinkets.