Dungeon Raider System

Sensing the psychic attack had to be the most difficult task a conscious person could ever perform. The act itself was a contradiction since in order to feel it, she needed to become aware of the existence of the psychic attack which diminished its efficacy to the point it couldn't be felt anymore. In other words, the more aware she was the less she would sense it.

However, Luna did her best to keep focus at the fringe of becoming aware in an almost subconscious way until she eventually became accustomed to the feeling and she thought she could potentially follow the signal to its source. Unfortunately, she needed to focus and the bickering around her was starting to get on her nerves and because of that, after announcing that she could sense it she asked for absolute silence before taking the lead of the party.

The others followed her as she made her way across the Shadowlands with a sense of purpose and determination that could be felt in spites of her silence. Every brain cell in Luna's brain was focused on the task at hand in a form of meditation very few people have ever managed to reach.

"Luna." Sam cut the silence after five minutes of running behind Luna.

"I said absolute silence, no matter what." Luna said in a monotone leaving no space for discussion.

Sam hesitantly lifted a hand as if trying to stop her, but he decided against it after realizing his position in the party was shaky at best. He was the only one who could see, but somehow it felt as if he was the only one who was actually lost. He could see the distant cryptids, the landscape and even the constructions, among which was the pillar Luna just faceplanted on.

"I tried to warn you."

"Silence." Luna said, her nose bleeding due to the unexpected obstacle, a situation Medusa was very familiar with since it happened to her many times while she was blinded. The difference now was that Luna sucked up the pain and embarrassment of her blunder and kept going like nothing happened and the reason for that was simple. The closer they got the signal the stronger she could feel it, but it wasn't a pleasant experience to say the least.

It started with a minor headache, like a space within her mind was trying to get breached by something followed by the violating feeling of something occupying her mind. That was bad, but when the high pitched noise started and the headache became worse to the point where she could feel the blood pumping on her brain she felt as though she would collapse. Every step she took was painful, yet she somehow managed to keep up the speed even after hitting obstacles by tumbling on the ground until she eventually lost consciousness but somehow kept running.

Upon noticing this, Sam warned Nika who took Luna's hand and led her through a safe path without altering her course which none of them knew, not even Luna. They left the city behind and passed through some towns and villages and left them behind until they reached what used to be a jungle, only without sunlight the plants had withered and only the naked trunks of the trees remained as evidence of what a beautiful place it had likely once been.

"What time is it?" Luna asked the moment she regained consciousness.

"This is strange, my smartphone isn't working." Medusa informed.

"Is it a cryptid!?" Sam asked with urgency.

"No, it's on, it just doesn't show the time or date." She replied after softly tapping the screen. It was very unlikely that kinetic persuasion would solve the problem, but Medusa had learned long ago it was always worth the shot.

"It's been a few days," Nika said, then corrected herself when she realized they had done way too many things for such a short span of time. "or maybe a few weeks?"

"I haven't lost sight of the sun, so it's been less than a day," Sam said, but then dubiously added. "or maybe not... I haven't been paying attention... I think."

It was impossible to tell how long it had been or whether it was day or night. It wasn't like Sam couldn't see the sun, but time seemed to pass at a different rate in the Shadowlands. Time was both painfully slow in the most disturbing boredom a person could experience, yet somehow it seemed as if the days went by without them noticing. It was almost as if they just blinked their eyes and it may as well been a week or a month.

"Why are you so concerned about time anyway? It's not like we're on a timer or something."

"There is something bothering me... can anybody tell when was the last time we ate?" No one could answer Luna's question no matter how hard they thought about it.

"Did we eat at all?" Nika asked out loud, which prompted Medusa to open her backpack and realize with horror her cheeky chicken was gone.

"No, no, please no! I must have dropped my rations. It's gone, it's all gone! That delicious cheeky chicken is gone and there's no way to get more." Medusa cried actual tears for her meal. It wasn't out of hunger, but the fact that even if she managed to return alive, Cheeky chicken wasn't being produced anywhere in the world.

"Guys... this is weird... my MREs are also missing. Would it be possible that a cryptid stole our rations?"

"Don't look at me, I don't even like those things and I have my... oh..." Sam fell silent when he realized his rations were also gone.

"It's just like I feared, I think we are inside a dungeon." Luna's words didn't echo, but lingered in the air nonetheless.

"Since when? It's impossible... the sun... the... sun..." Sam wanted to rebuke but couldn't think of anything that would explain their current predicament if not for the physics defying logic of the argument.

"The more important question is not since when, but rather which dungeon it could be." Nika added.

"Too bad the only one who could probably answer that question is not here."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but we could call Jon. He's a jerk, but he's also an archaeologist. If only we had a radio." Nika clicked her tongue to which Medusa replied.

"We do have a radio, but there's no signal at all. It's as if we're on a different planet."

"From what we know about dungeons, that's very unlikely. They're all connected to our planet in some way," Luna said, then corrected herself. "but since dungeons are interconnected, we actually can't rule out the possibility that they are also connected somehow with another planet."

"So, in the end cryptids are aliens. Who would have thought." Medusa chuckled.

"That would explain why they don't scare me."

The group carried on a lighthearted discussion about cryptids being aliens, but as usual it ended in a heated argument until they forgot what they were fighting about. Luna sharpened her senses in an attempt to sense a psychic attack, but realized it was caused by their competitive personalities.

"Enough, it's time we focus on getting some food." Nika commanded but Sam replied.

"And where exactly are we supposed to get food from!? There is no vegetation in this place and that also means there's no animals. Do you think there's a convenience store around the corner!?"

"Even if we could find some food, I still think we shouldn't eat it."

"Why is that?" Sam asked and Luna replied calmly.

"Because I think I know where we are...," she lingered a few seconds, not to add drama but to make sure she had their attention. "It's the Hades."

"We're dead!?" Nika's face became pale as a ghost, which according to Luna's theory would suit her well.

"Not necessarily. In Greek mythology, the Hades was a reign inside of this world. It's a physical place where only shadows exist. It is possible to enter, but getting out is a different case."

"So, you're saying we entered the land of the dead and we can't get out. How is that different from being dead!?" Nika cried.

"If you think about it, we've been to the land of the dead many times over. Most dungeons we've visited had the equivalent of the 'land of the dead' and we were able to exit alive and well. Think of the happy hunting grounds in the Alamo Dungeon where Sam got married."

"You really won't forget about that." Sam frowned.

"It's different in this case because we ran out of food already and if I'm correct about us being in the Hades, if you eat anything you find in here you won't ever be able to exit. That means we will eventually die of starvation, but there's a silver lining," Luna brought hope to the group only to take it away with her following words. "I have always wondered if it was a supernatural rule or if the food that could be found here was toxic and now I have a chance to investigate that."