Dungeon Raider System
Chapter 703 - 703: Death Valley Dungeon Part 1

Uriel's plan was to keep himself from unearthing any artifacts on the first couple days to give his classmates a chance to find whatever artifacts they could in order for the expedition to be a success. However, the insane amount of artifacts seemingly out of place made him curious and he decided to leave the students to their own devises and focus on his own research.

He jogged from site to site, picking up small trinkets and arrowheads like he was picking up berries from a bush under the astonished look of the students that followed him.

"Do those things make you smarter?" Ashanti asked pointing at Uriel's glasses.

"Poking fun at other people's disabilities is rude, you know." Hathaway scolded her.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't you be looking for artifacts right now?" Uriel glared at them. Their presence only made it more difficult for him to find a dungeon as he couldn't activate his Dash skill or summon his jaguar without arising suspicions that he may have more than one trait. It wasn't the case, but Uriel didn't want to draw any more attention than his wealth and power already did.

Besides, he also couldn't explain that the reason he was able to find artifacts so easily was due to the glasses that allowed him to see the flux energy nodes. "Just go back to the group, I'm sure you'll eventually find something, but even if you don't it will still provide some insight about this place's history."

"There's nothing to find here, it's just salt. No civilization could have lived here." Scoundrel whined, his dusty clothes and the dirt under his nails were evidence that he gave it his best shot and still failed.

"You may think so because of the temperature, but that's not precise. The Timbisha Shoshone lived in this place for over a thousand years." Uriel explained.

"Why? It's not like there's much of anything here." Scoundrel tilted his head. As naive as it seemed, he had a point and Uriel couldn't refute his claim. There was nothing but searing heat, a scorching sun and salt everywhere Uriel looked.

It was precisely that question what got Uriel to wonder 'what if the value of this land isn't above the surface but beneath?'. The location of dungeons was either unknown or kept a secret by people from the Mapple corporation, though Uriel had been to enough dungeons to know more or less what to look for.

Dungeons were usually located beneath ground on land that was heavily contested by people such as The Alamo. To people from the past, the fort itself and even the San Fernando Cathedral held little value if any, yet they still fought many battles to protect that land.

Uriel also knew that dungeons were places where flux energy converged and with his glasses he was now able to see the brimming flux energy that flowed at his feet and he followed it to a place where the flux energy was at its highest.

"Did you find something?" Asked Scoundrel as he leaned closer to the stone Uriel was studying.

"The Timbisha Shoshone were also called 'rock paint' because they used red dirt to paint their faces." He explained as he showed a seemingly worthless piece of red dirt.

"I doubt the ancient families that donated money to fund this expedition did so in hopes of us finding make up." Hathaway chuckled.

"Do you see where this rock was taken from? Do you see any human remains that could indicate this is a burial site? No, to you this is just a rock, but to the Timbisha Shoshone this was actually valuable, enough at least to carry it through a desert."

"I need water." Uriel asked the students who ran back to the caravan to their top speed only to return five minutes later with large cans filled with water which Uriel promptly poured on the largest energy node he found.

[System notice] Death Valley Dungeon unlocked.

Death Valley owed its name due to the harsh climate conditions that made it almost impossible for people to live in. Many different geological conditions aligned perfectly to create what was called a 'rift valley' among which were the tectonic plaques, the rain shadow cast by four different mountains and even its vegetation.

It could be said it was a miracle of nature, yet the most outstanding fact was something Uriel failed to notice before pouring water on the flux node.

Water had always been incredibly scarce on Death Valley.

To Uriel it was just a means to make digging easier since salt would melt in contact with water. Unfortunately to him, he didn't anticipate how effective it could be nor did he consider that Death Valley was actually the deepest ground level in all the northern continent. When put together, all these factors combined to cause a massive sinkhole.

"What the hell is going on!?" Scoundrel cursed as a shockwave passed directly beneath his feet at the same time Uriel unwittingly unlocked the dungeon.

"This feels odd." Hathaway looked at his own hand when he noticed something that felt like an invisible membrane moving past it.

Needless to say, Uriel was already familiar with that phenomenon Uriel coined as 'the veil' and he also wasn't too surprised when he felt the shockwave. However, Uriel became dumbfounded when he noticed that instead of a door opening it was as though the dungeon itself expanded outside.

"This isn't good." Uriel muttered.

"Of course it's not good, we should head back immediately." Alice nodded with a stern expression and turned to leave.

"Hey! He's not coming!" Scoundrel looked around and found out Uriel didn't follow them but remained on the same place. He didn't know what was the reason for that, until he saw a giant hand coming out of the abyssal sinkhole and grabbing Uriel.

"The teaching assistant needs help!" Hathaway yelled as he too saw what happened.

"Run, you fools!" Uriel snarled before letting himself be taken away by the rocky hand to where he assumed was the inside of the depths of the dungeon.