Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 970: Mythological auction Part 2

Although Uriel interpreted the glares he received from the cryptids present at the auction, it was actually them looking down on the newcomer. They had witnessed the same scene several times, a human walks in, freezes in fear of the cryptids, and then leaves without being able to buy anything. To say it was pity would be inaccurate as most of the cryptids present were incapable of even experiencing that emotion.

Curiosity struck them when Uriel started talking with the shapeshifter as that was something that never happened before, but they lost interest soon after as notifications started to pop up in their crystal balls informing them that someone had just bought the items they were bidding for.

"What is this nonsense?" A baba yaga asked, her shadowy limbs extending forward to the crystal ball as tree branches reaching for sunlight.

"Master will be angry when he finds out." A mermaid pouted when the necklace of the seven seas was purchased.

"If he finds out," The lorelei besides her chuckled. "he’s been having fun among the mortals for a couple centuries."

"Troy was really hard on him, then that guy Ulisses..." The mermaid attempted to make excuses, but the lorelei kept pressing.

"That why I’ve been telling you, you should shift your allegiance. If you came to Miss Aphrodite’s side you and I could be sisters like we were in the past."

"I will always remain loyal to his excellency." The mermaid replied coldly.

"And that is why you will always be an ugly fish." The lorelei smiled with charm.

Although the lorelei looked more like a human than the mermaid did, they came from the same merfolk family and although they took different evolutionary paths they were still close relatives. However, thanks to the lorelei submitting to Aphrodite her species as a whole gained a beauty that could not be compared with that of the mermaid.

For someone to mistake a mermaid with a human could only be possible at a distance and only at sea, since their fish tails were obvious tells. But there was also the fact that their eyes were larger in order for them to be able to see underwater and they also possessed webbed claws and sharp fangs as means of defense.

"They’re just small fish, don’t pay them any mind. Just keep buying stuff." The shapeshifter wearing Uriel’s skin stoked the fire of greed on the real Uriel like a devil in his shoulder.

"But they’re starting to notice." Uriel looked around.

"So what? This place is an absolute neutrality zone. We couldn’t hurt each other even if we wanted to." The shapeshifter lied.

"If you say it, then it must be true," Uriel could not distrust the words spoken with his own mouth, forgetting that he used to lie with the same ease he breathed. "who would have thought that trites were this valuable..." Uriel pondered as he kept on buying everything he found taking advantage of the system Tyche had built for millennia.

When Uriel found out that credits were useless in the auction his hopes of actually buying anything became nigh zero and the decided to stay just to look for a way to steal the artifacts. He had but one old coin, but it was precious to him as he didn’t see it for its minted value but rather its historic importance.

It was then, that he remembered the system came with a [convert] ability incorporated which allowed him to exchange credits into trites at a rate he considered to be extorsion at the time, only now it seemed incredibly cheap. Not just that, he also had accumulated a large amount of trites thanks to his daily exercises to the point where he considered trites as pocket money to buy snacks.

"If you think about it, it’s only natural that trites are the most valuable coin since they’re also the first currency that ever existed in human society." The shapeshifter in Uriel’s skin explained.

"You know, I wouldn’t hate having a conversation with you about archaeology." Talking with the shapeshifter was akin to talking to himself as they could only access his own memories, but Uriel now realized that new perspectives could be born.

"That is too narcissistic even for me." The cryptid sneered and Uriel continued his shopping spree to appease the awkwardness.

Just like the cryptid mentioned, the trite was considered the most valuable coin which allowed Uriel to buy some of the smaller artifacts with just one coin even getting change in varied old coins which motivated him to start a collection on coins. As these thoughts crossed his mind, a system notification popped up. It was a string of emails from Nika who informed him in real time about what was going on.

Nika: Making our big entrance wish me luck.

Nika: They all bought it, lol.

Nika: I’m on TV!

Nika: Everyone’s looking and I’m topless, this feels weird.

Nika: The gods showed up, I’m shitting bricks!

Had she been able to explain the situation in details Uriel would have realized how serious it was, but he couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the increasingly anxious Nika who could only send him one liners. Even if she screamed bloody murder on the short texts, they somehow sounded funny as he read them with Nika’s tone.

"Are you making fun of us?" One of the hundreds of cryptids stepped up from their terminal and glared at Uriel.

"What!?" Was the only thing Uriel managed to say as he was taken by surprise.

"Someone’s been buying the items we’ve waited centuries to acquire, is that a fun thing for you?" The cryptid in question was none other than a dullahan, a really problematic creature for many reasons. One being that they followed the chivalry code which surprisingly allowed them to act like jerks under the guise of honor and pride. But there were several other problems such as them being parasitic, possessing natural armor and worst of all, their only weakness was to know the name of the human they used to be which was impossible without context.

Uriel scanned the armor looking for any evidence, but although he could identify the location and date the armor was crafted, there were no obvious tells about the identity of the man it once was.

"And what if I’m laughing at you? If you wanted to buy the artifacts then you should have gone ahead and bought them. It’s not my problem that you’re too poor to do that." Uriel said after regaining his composure.

"Uriel, you really shouldn’t provoke him like that." The shapeshifter said in Uriel’s voice.

"You said they can’t harm us here, so..."

"I lied." The shapeshifter said in a calm tone of voice, the fact that she could remain calm in those circumstances made her realize two things, other than wearing a man’s skin was always uncomfortable for her who was originally a female. First, was that Uriel’s personality was twisted to the point that she wondered if he was worse than a cryptid, and second that Uriel was no longer the same person he used to be as the real one started sweating buckets when she informed him it was a lie.

"What did you just say? I dare you to repeat those words one more time." The empty armor clasped its hands hard enough to cause a screeching sound.

Nika: Veritas, ASAP.

At that moment, Nika found herself impersonating Uriel in front of the Celes tower. The gods that possessed the Defenders had just shown up and thanks to Alonso’s ability they were able to identify their real identities beneath the vessels. His trait allowed him to see light in all of its spectrum which meant he could act as a living breathing Kirlian camera. That said, he was also able to see that it wasn’t the real Uriel standing in front of the enemies but Nika and the reason he acted so sheepishly had nothing to do with him being scared, but the fact that he saw her topless.

Alonso was shaken by the fact that everyone acted normal around Nika, considering how she was showing her everything and didn’t bother to cover up. Confusion would only start to describe how he felt until he eventually gaslighted himself into thinking it was normal and he proceeded to actually do his job and start identifying the gods.

They all had varied shapes and sizes which Alonso understood as their level of power, not that it mattered as they explained to him that just identifying the gods was enough to defeat them. However, he had never studied mythology and the only thing he could do was to describe what he saw and relay it to Luna, who in turn would inform Nika thinking it was Uriel. Then, Nika would inform the real Uriel who was supposed to buy the axis mundi of the god in question and store it in his museum to seal the god.

It should have worked, but then...

"I challenge you to a duel." The Dullahan slapped Uriel.

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