Dungeon Raider System
Chapter 654 - 654: On the witch side of things Part 2

Bella had no qualms about mostly anything which Uriel confirmed when she blatantly asked him for a child, yet being the target of an old man's attention didn't bode well with her, yet the old man spoke the truth. He did provide her a service and she needed to pay with her body.

"Is this payment enough?" She asked with a jagged breath after only two minutes of physical effort.

"Please, no more." The old doctor cried with a lisp, his face filled with bruises and bumps after receiving what could be considered the beating of a lifetime.

"It's just like you said, doctors provide the service of healing and hunters do the killing. I'd be happy to kill you, but then I would have to charge you and dead men don't pay their debts." Bella scoffed. In spites of her short career as a hunter, she was proud to call herself that.

Witches had to do a lot of reading, studying and practicing, while being a hunter was more straightforward. She just had to blast things away with her trait or punch stuff in the face and it suited her character perfectly.

"I think I had enough of your services already. I'll consider us even." The man said after healing himself with the same procedure he used before with Bella. His face soon returned to be the same wrinkly shade of brown it was before the beating, though now his eyes looked sad and then he fumbled. "It's always the same with hunters, they think they can solve anything with violence."

"What family do you come from, anyway?" Bella asked once the man fell silent.

"I don't have a wife if that's what you're asking. That is why I was thinking..." It took but a glare from Bella for the man to change the topic. "And what were you trying to achieve when you crashed onto the city?"

"Get inside, obviously!" She scoffed at the man for the umpteenth time. All the kind thought she had of him after he healed her were washed away the minute he made a move on her.

"Why? Don't you know that is where the enemy dwells?" The man scowled.

"I do, but my family is in there and I need their help to... wait a second. Do you know how to dispel curses? If you're already that good with the healing, then I bet lifting a curse shouldn't be too difficult."

"I don't." The man replied hiding his face to the side.

"Are you lying to me?" Bella's eyes glinted with power for a brief second making the old man flinch in response.

"Fine! I do know how, but I'm not doing anything for free."

"You dirty old geezer!" Bella screamed in outrage.

"Things are what they are. Hunters hunt, doctors heal, but not for free." The man said as he closed his eyes ready to receive a slap that never came. Instead, Bella composed herself and murmured softly into his ear in the most seductive way she could muster.

"I need your help yo save my brother, please."

"I will do it if you marry me." The man blatantly proposed.

"Of course not! I'll pay you anything you want if you save him, but there's no way I'm marrying you."

"Too bad, I made up my mind already. I have no use for money, I need a wife instead. We are a match made in heaven, I would not only lift the curse on your brother, I would heal your family for free. In return, all you have to do is give me many children." Upon hearing that word Bella's eyes started twitching uncontrollably.

"Too bad I can't have children with anyone but the one who lifted my curse." She let out a sigh.

"You too are the bearer of a curse?" The man looked at her with distrust now instead of lust. "curses are known to affect entire families, but why didn't you ask me to lift yours instead of your brother's?"

"Because... my curse can only be lifted by him." Bella's voice became soft as a murmur in the end letting the man know how troubled she was about it.

"It's that kind of curse, then." The man nodded knowingly.

"You know about my affliction?" Bella asked, a glint of hope sparking her eyes in a light shade of green.

"What others might consider a blessing can be considered a curse by others. A gift can become a burden, no matter how well intended it is."

"You get it, old man!" Bella smiled at him.

"With age also comes wisdom and I am very old. Also, my name is Atsa."

"I'm Bella." She said as she extended her hand towards him. Instead of grabbing it, Atsa flinched thinking she was going to hit him again. Only after a distrustful few seconds did the man reply the gesture, seemingly puzzled by it.

"Now that we know each other, we might as well..."

"I'm not going to marry you, pervert!" She cut him short with a scoff.

"I was going to suggest to head inside the city. I have work to do before night falls and you want to get inside too."

"And here I thought maybe you knew this place better than I did. It's always daytime in this dungeon." Bella's words seemingly fell into deaf ears as the man walked towards the entrance.

Each of his steps came accompanied by the thumping sound of his 'walking stick' which was actually a heavy hatchet Uriel would have immediately recognized despite the new feathery ornaments it now displayed in its grip.

As they neared the gate, Atsa crouched to grab a bunch of dirt for no apparent reason. He then pushed the door open followed closely by Bella who marbled at the sight of the golden city of Cibola.

"Let me tell you a story about this place you call dungeon. You may not know this, but when the gods created the humans they attempted to make them as similar to them as possible."

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard that before."

"And did you know that they failed?"

"What? That's not the one I heard." For as long as she could remember, Bella had always heard that humans were made to resemble the gods. Saying it wasn't true was akin to heresy for witches. She was so taken aback she missed the treasures in plain sight and just followed Atsa to hear some more.

"They tried making them with the four elements trying to find the perfect balance, but they were too stupid, too slow, too ethereal or too violent.

Creating us to their liking was impossible because finding the perfect balance between the elements was also impossible which is why after creating us, they abandoned us." The man's voice became filled with sadness which made Bella empathize with him until she realized he wasn't talking to her face.

"Quit eyeing me like a perv! Also, what you're saying doesn't make any sense. You said they failed to create what they wanted, but that they abandoned us."

"Ah, yes, but we were imperfect. Because of this, they wouldn't let us live by their side. They didn't have it in their hearts to kill us themselves which is why they abandoned us in a barren planet devoid of all life so we would die. There was no food nor shelter, no life nor light, there was nothing.

It was then that the fathers of creation took pity on us and they took us in, they gifted us the earth below our feet and a blanket of stars to cover us at night, they gifted us the air we breathe and the fire that keeps us warm. And we thrived, and we lived, and we became prosper enough that the gods themselves were envious of us."

"And then what happened!? Did the gods came and try to take everything for themselves?" Bella asked, unaware that she was now entering the very floating island she wanted to visit.

"What happened then is something that cannot be explained by reason, something that happened but makes no sense and what started everything. The most powerful of the fathers of creation, Father of all nations and the most beautiful of the goddesses, Dearest one, were supposed to wage war, but instead fell in love in the time before love even existed.

They were from different races, from different worlds and they wrote with their passion the first love story in all of existence."

"Aw! That is so cute!" Bella squealed covering her mouth with both her fists and rattling her feet. "Why can't I live in a good romance story like that!?"

"Because that is also what sentenced us all to death, because that is how the gods died." A lonely tear crawled from the man's eye as he finished deactivating the traps in front of them and the gate in front of them opened before it made its way to his chin.

"No way! This place is deserted! Where is my family!?" The huge clay door opening in front of her snapped her out of Atsa's story and she gasped in disbelief once she noticed they were completely alone in a place where thousands of people were supposed to live in.