Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 579: Heard it through the grapevine Part 1

Several expressions of displease were heard at the same time in the Pegasus after Nika informed everyone of Uriel's decision to spend more time in Hollywood. Some of them had spent in one day most of their monthly wages and expected to be able to spend the rest in the following days knowing their upkeep would be taken care of after setting off.

Now, they needed to spend whatever was left of their savings more wisely or live in the Pegasus until Uriel decided their next move. Of all the crew, the more affected by this were the Armstrong men since most of them headed directly to the red light district as soon as the landed like sailors of the old times.

Compared to them, Emma's and Amy's situation wasn't much better as they both spent quite a big sum to attend to a concert of a raising star. Neither of them ever heard a song from the band, but after seeing the poster they became enthralled by the singer.

Everything about him was beautiful to the point of making him look fake, but they were willing to spend their entire savings in the off chance that such a man could be real which is pretty much what they did.

"No way! I wanted to explore the city and try different foods!" Amy's tail fell limp in dejection.

"And I wanted to do some shopping and get new clothes. I'm tired of the crap Uriel always gives us."

"He has bad taste in clothes, but they're high quality. Besides, you can't complain about free stuff." Amy shrugged.

"You're only saying that because he gave you a wardrobe's worth of cute skirts and tops, while he only picks baggy clothes for me." Emma said with a wry smile.

"You can borrow some if you like them." Amy spun around her heels to show her attire, but the sudden movement lifted the tip of her skirt showing her panties making Emma want to say she was a slut despite how grateful she was towards Amy for saving her.

"You're a slut." She said anyways, but Amy disregarded her words as nothing but jealousy.

"We should probably go to the Cryptid hunting agency and see if there's any work we can take."

"Not a chance," Said Liam who had gotten somewhat close with the girls since they met in college. "Some of us went there and they're not selling any incursion tickets."

"How can they survive if they're not hunting?" Emma asked.

"They are hunting, only not on land and not cryptids necessarily. I asked around and people told me this city doesn't produce synthetic food and instead relies on fishing and trading."

"Hmm... this means we could sell the flux orbs we've gathered and make a lot of money." Amy nodded.

"I... don't have any." Contrary to Amy who was a skilled fighter, Emma's contributions on the company were mainly intellectual.

"Me neither, I spend most of the time checking the ship's status and hauling stuff for Miss Medusa." Liam shrugged.

"Ow, that's too bad." Amy turned to leave to her room and count how many flux orbs she had at her disposal, but Emma caught her tail and tugged on it. Having her tail grabbed was extremely uncomfortable and she felt like she was being zapped by electricity, yet what bothered her the most was that she knew having her tail lifted meant her skirt also revealed more than it should.

"I didn't see anything!" Liam shouted, blushing up to his ears.

Five minutes later, when the scratches on Emma's face were already starting to heal on their own and Liam's face was recovering from the undeserved slap it received Emma finally came up with an idea.

"We could hunt inside the city, I bet there must be cryptids here and I'm confident I can find them."

"I'm not going to the sewers if that's what you're planning. Even if there are giant rats and deformed lizards down there, it's too filthy to be worth the effort just for a few beast rank flux orbs." Amy replied.

"Besides, I'm an engineer and Amy a field medic, we still need a ranger and a combatant for a well balanced party." Liam pointed out, but by then Emma was already outside the ship looking for phone signal.

It came at an expensive cost, but now she was glad she invested some of her money into a phone plan before wasting the rest on the concert she didn't even know she would attend.

"Hmm... hmm..." Emma fumbled as he scrolled on her phone.

"Intrepid girl, seriously!? You're the least intrepid girl I've ever met." Liam chuckled.

"What was I supposed to do? Sage was already taken." Emma grumbled.

"Sage!? You really are his sister!?" Liam's jaw almost hit the floor.

"They don't know if they're related, they just share an uncommon last name," Amy answered since Emma was focused on the smartphone's screen then looked Liam in the eye and said. "Don't even think about it."

"What?"

"You're thinking on dating Emma to get closer to Uriel, aren't you? That's low." Amy's face lost all traces of her bubbly attitude and looked serious and commanding, like the huntress she was.

"Isn't it the same thing you're doing? I bet you became her friend because you thought it'd get you closer to him."

"Not really, if I was any closer to him we'd be married already." Amy declared closing her eyes and puffing our her chest. Ever since she joined the Dungeon Raiders she had been exploiting the fact that she went 'on a date' with Uriel, even if he didn't realize it at the moment. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

The rumors going around in the company also backed her up, since the clothes Uriel picked up for her were always better than most, though that was only because he just bought her things similar to those he had seen her wear before. That's why he gave her skirts.

As for the reason why he bought her so many outfits, it was because Uriel knew she was a hybrid capable of shapeshifting like Luna and he assumed she would also rip them often.

"Anyway, I don't want to get closer to him, just to his shadow." Although it was the first time he said it out loud, it wasn't a secret to the girls that he had a big crush on Nika. That's why he chose her as a teacher and why after joining the Armstrong party he was among those who voted to join the Dungeon Raiders company.

"Ew! That's creepy!"

"I have good news and bad news, which do you want to hear first?" Emma sighed after coming out of her trance. She had been so focused she missed the entire conversation being held in the background.

"The good news, obviously." The always optimistic Amy replied.

"Good news is I found a lot of suspicious news and posts that indicate the presence of cryptids."

"That was fast." Liam said, truly amazed by Emma's competence. For years, the presence of cryptids inside the walls had been kept a secret and although it was a known fact for everyone in the Dungeon Raiders, it still surprised him that she was able to find anything so fast.

"That's where the bad news start. They're too many and possibly too strong."

"You can tell that too!?"

"It's really easy, you just have to know what to look for. Take a look, I already snapped some screenshots of the most interesting ones." Thanks to her trait, Emma was able to hand them photographs of the screenshots she took on her smartphone.

'I think the mirror in my livingroom is cursed: I bought it from...'

'Help! My mom is acting weird: Ever since she started dating her new boyfriend...'

'There's a monster under my bed, I can hear him every night scratching the floor...'

'Haunted house for rent, we don't take any responsibility for...'

Amy and Liam took a peek at the different posts Emma handed them and their expressions soon shifted.

"It cold be anything, why do you think this means there's cryptids involved?" Amy shook her head.

"Half of these posts could be easily explained by rats or leaky pipes." Liam pointed out.

"Whatever the case, we can't find out by ourselves. Like the haunted house, it might be nothing or it could be an entity rank cryptid." Emma explained.

"So, that's the bad news. Even if they're real, we would be risking too much and possibly not getting anything out of it." Liam nodded. In spites of his hot head character and fit body, he was smarter than he looked. Before joining Nika's class he had already proven his worth during the first semester.

"I'll show them to Uriel and see if he's interested. Perhaps we'll get a bonus or something." Amy took the pictures from her friends and hurried over to the bridge, hoping to arrange a meeting with him.