Dungeon Raider System
Chapter 652 - 652: The fabled city of Cibola Part 3

Uriel continued running for a while and moved frantically around the city as though looking for something he misplaced. He barged inside some of the houses finding the treasures of the same quality as those Kenny found, yet ignored them all and continued searching until Nika came out of her shadow.

"Stop! You're leaving my cute little Luna behind." She said, letting out a pained moan the moment her swollen foot touched the ground.

"And me too! I almost lost you. We need to wait for Luna." Medusa panted heavily as she walked in.

"Look at that, we're rich!" Nika pointed at the pile of treasures inside the house Uriel broke into.

Uriel then started to rummage to the treasures, paying attention to some of the vases from time to time, but focusing mostly on the trites since they were easy to store. By the time Luna arrived Uriel had already gone through the entire place twice, yet he still seemed to be looking for something.

"Can you do something about this?" Nika showed Luna her swollen foot the moment she entered the room.

"I'm tired." Was all she said before sitting in a golden chair and dosing off like an office worker who just came home after a long day. Somehow, her cute face looked even cuter and if not for the deep snores that could easily be mistaken by growls Nika would have definitely snuggled up with her.

"Well, since we can't move anymore you may as well explain what's going on or what you're looking for, perhaps we can help," Nika fidgeted with one of the plates for a few seconds before Uriel violently snatched it. "Hey! I was looking at that."

"I know what's wrong with this place." Uriel said without stopping his endeavor, making him as annoying as Luna when she fell silent after saying something outrageous.

"And?" Medusa prompted him to speak.

"Think about it. We've been here before, we even lived here! I didn't find any evidence or clue about a hidden city during our stay in the second world, yet the moment we leave it just appears out of thin air?"

"Didn't you say that ancient structures can be repaired with flux orbs? Maybe those who remained here crushed a lot of them." Medusa theorized.

"That's an excellent explanation, but it raises two questions. Where is the people that crushed enough orbs for this entire city to be repaired." Uriel replied.

"I'm not a mathlete or whatever those guys good with numbers are called, but you only mentioned one question." Nika snarled in frustration.

"Where is Bella?" Uriel asked.

"Is that the second question or," Nika was about to ask for clarification when it hit her. "hang on, she came here looking for her family who is supposedly inside this city somewhere. She can fly and has a wind barrier that protects her, yet she's nowhere to be seen."

"The same applies for the members of the society. These buildings and all the artifacts I've found so far, they're all ancient. There's not even a single trace that someone from the modern times lived in here." Uriel's questions were finally starting to make sense.

"Shit! If anyone from our times saw the treasures inside their first instinct would be to do exactly what those guys are doing at the entrance. This means we're the first hunters to enter this place."

"That, or they're hiding somewhere." Medusa said.

"Why would they hide? This place is empty!" Nika rebuked.

"I don't know, it's just... I have this weird feeling I can't explain." Medusa huffed.

In the meantime, Uriel cleaned an golden vase with his sleeve revealing a thick blue line painted around it and his expression shifted and became somber.

"This is the confirmation I needed, but you guys are not going to like it. This place was once inhabited by a tribe that didn't have a name. This is important because it means they didn't participate in trade or commerce with its neighboring tribes or else they would have known at least how did that people call themselves.

Something like that is highly unusual and in those cases, it's the neighboring tribes the ones who give them a name. The Navajos from the old times used to call the inhabitants of this city the Anasazi which translates roughly to 'Ancient enemy'." Sweat trickled down Uriel's forehead as he spoke and his glare devolved into the same he had back when he lived in the slums.

He also kept his fists clenched until it hurt and constantly scanned the room as though they were being spied on.

"But, they're gone, right? Right?" Nika asked, fearing the silence more than any possible answer.

"That is precisely the problem. They're gone, but no one knows how it happened or why. One of the theories proposes that they simply merged with other tribes which is very unlikely considering their language didn't persist. When two different nations merge there are only two choices, either both languages persist or they merge just like its people.

When a language disappears it usually means the eradication of an entire culture, in other words, genocide."

"Whew! You had me scared for a second there!" Nika cheered.

"I knew you were shady, but celebrating genocide is too low even for you." Medusa scolded and Uriel continued his rant about archaeology.

"But that's only one of the theories. You see, I know this city must be Cibola because the word derives from an ancient word for bison in spanish..."

"You can understand spanish!?" Nika paled at the thought that Uriel understood her whenever she swore behind his back. Once again, Uriel ignored her and continued his explanation.

"The bison at the gate indicates this is Cibola, but there's a catch. Cibola is one of the seven cities of gold, it's supposed to be mythical. I know that 'El dorado' is real, I saw it in my visions, but this..."

"If there's one, there could be many." Nika shrugged, glad that Uriel ignored her. If he could understand her swearing and hadn't punished her for that, then it was better to just forget about it as though nothing happened.

Unbeknownst to her, it wasn't that Uriel could understand Spanish or most languages. His knowledge about modern languages was only derivative from his studies about the ancient ones. This meant that he knew the meaning of the word because of his research about the city of Cibola and not because he actually spoke the language.

"That's a generalization, but let's say you're correct. These are the facts, one of the first expeditions to Florida went all the way down to Sonora and in the way they supposedly heard the natives speak of a rich somewhere up in the north.

Because of this, the Spanish king sent the fray Marcos de Niza to find more about those rumors in a second expedition which came to an abrupt end when their translator was killed by the natives. However, the fray didn't give up in looking for this city and after a while he returned claiming that he actually saw the city with his own eyes.

He depicted it as a rich city made of gold where even the humblest household possessed silver cutlery."

"That sounds like he did come here." Nika showed an actual silver spoon that rested on top of the table.

"I'm inclined to think the same, but when the kind sent a military expedition in charge of Francisco Vazques de Coronado to find this place they couldn't find it. Coronado actually disproved Fray Marcos' claims, but then...

Medusa, do you happen to have the cross I gave you?" Uriel asked, pretending he didn't know she always wore it as he confirmed every time he took an 'innocent' peek at her cleavage.

"Uhm... sure." She replied shyly as she took it off and handed it to Uriel.

"The reason I gave you this cross is because it's made of silver and that would have kept you safe from the skinwalkers. At the time, I thought it was fair giving it to you because you lost your silver ear piercings when we fought against a skinwalker for the first time. But what if it isn't actually made of silver? What if it's made of gold?"

"It can't be. I'm sure it's made of silver because I used it against your doppelganger." Medusa explained as she blushed in bright red, not just because of Uriel stirring old memories but also because she remembered what she was about to do with his doppelganger.

"Yes, I know... but," Uriel scratched the cross surface and revealed it was actually made of gold. "this explains everything. This is proof the conquistadors found this dungeon before the Texians. This, my friends, is Coronado's cross." Uriel's eyes glinted in lustful avarice as a familiar sensation crawled up from his hands to his chest and he stored it inside his museum.

Coronado's cross: A jeweled golden cross. Emperor Justinian had it crafted to resemble the Vatican Crux and gave it to Hernan Cortez who, in turn, gifted it to Coronado before sending him to look for the seven cities of gold in the new world.