Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 591: Work sucks Part 1

Miss Dragonfang found herself doing something most hunters, even those at the heavenly rank would refrain themselves from doing unless absolutely necessary and even then, they would still think twice before doing it. She walked the streets of Hollywood megacity after curfew hours.

As usual, the previously lively streets filled with advertising and shops everywhere were now shifted into dark streets that resembled corridors due to the metal curtains that kept the stores safe at night.

Fortunately, she wasn't by herself and which allowed her to walk with confidence given that contrary to most citizens, she already knew what to expect.

The mission of their party was to bait cryptids with nocturnal habits which, according to Luna, should be at most at the monster level.

For their strategy to work, though, they needed to look as harmless and clueless as possible which unfortunately to her party, meant dressing like red light district workers pretending to be lost, something that didn't fit Phlox personality or body type in the slightest.

Her height was about 1.70 meters, a bit over the average but nothing that would stand out, contrary her muscular appearance that contrasted heavily with her short skirt complimented by daring fishnet tights. Because of the diminutive size of her clothes it looked like she borrowed her clothes from a younger sister.

She wasn't by any means ugly, but she lacked the exuberant curves of her companions which amounted to the grimace on her face made her look manly and intimidating instead of alluring.

"Relax, nothing can go wrong with Bella by our side." Miss Dragonfang shook her friend by the shoulders trying to soothe her.

"You do this on purpose, it's the only explanation I can think of." Phlox grumbled.

"What?" Lizzy Dragonfang tilted her head.

"You always jinx our incursions by saying stupid stuff like that."

"Shut up, you're scaring it," Luna's words silences them both. Contrary to the revealing clothes of her partners, she was dressed in a flowery dress and wore a matching hair pin. No one could blame anyone who mistook her for a small child because that was precisely the idea. "The more defenseless and frail we look, the better."

"But... she looks like a tranny." Bella had a hard time holding off her laughter at the sight of Phlox's mean face not even Bella's make up skills could hide.

"You say it like it's an insult, but there's nothing wrong with crossdressing." Miss Dragonfang attempted to defend her friend, managing only to embarrass her even further.

Being the only one with her senses focused on the task, Luna was able to react when an odd looking cryptid with nothing but two legs and a round head in between attacked. She easily dodged the bash, but the cryptid opened its maw revealing its jagged teeth and a freakishly long tongue it used to attempt to catch Luna without stopping its race.

Instead of dodging, Luna shred the tongue to pieces with her orichalcum claws and then jumped on top of the cryptid with a maddened glint in her eyes.

"Get inside this claws." Luna said, though the cryptid didn't seem to understand her words.

"That's not how it works." A shocked Bella informed.

"What about this?" Luna pierced through one of the cryptid's legs taking care not to cause too much damage, but the pain was enough to send the odd creature into a frenzy. Without its tongue, though, there was little it could do to defend itself from the mad cryptozoologist.

"I don't think so..." Bella answered even more shocked than before.

"Just put down the poor thing." Miss Dragonfang uttered oozing pity for the ugly creature. Off all those present, only she and Luna were able to see past physical appearances due to their shapeshifting ability and the ensuing self esteem issues.

Luna did as Miss Dragonfang said despite wanting to study the cryptid in detail because even though she held a high rank in the company, during incursions she was usually at the bottom because despite her best efforts she remained an ascended. This was precisely the argument that got Uriel to agree to let her break the curfew.

The night progressed with a few encounters like this, all of them resulting in a similar manner. Luna ended up doing most of the fighting with the help of Phlox's who kept at a distance using her trait to boost Luna granting her a considerable boost to her speed.

Miss Dragonfang stood by in case she needed help, but she wasn't much interested in fighting and only wanted the reward, while Bella's heavenly rank senses allowed her to find the spots where cryptids were more likely to appear.

"This is the easiest money I've seen." Miss Dragonfang exclaimed after picking up a monster level flux orb from the ground. Not only did they manage to clear an entire neighborhood in one night, but thanks to the current market even beast level flux orbs were worth their weight in credits.

"I still can't believe Uriel was so cruel to me." Bella fumbled as a brief smile disappeared from her face. Hunting was a new experience and she couldn't deny that she was having fun, but despite that she still resented Uriel for twisting her arm into joining the company.

"Uhm... You got it easy. You almost killed him, he's killed people for less." Luna replied.

"But he tortured me!" Bella cried.

"It was me the one who proposed torture, Medusa was against it and Uriel found a way to do it without harming you."

"You what!?" Bella exclaimed in outrage.

"I wanted to know if something inside you makes you different than regular hunters, but... I can't touch you." Luna spoke so casually Bella didn't know if to be grateful towards Uriel, resented towards Luna or blame herself for getting herself into the wolf's maw without even noticing.

"We need to run." Phlox ended the short interaction between her companions with a calm whisper as though trying not to alert a nearing predator.

"You just don't want people to see you." Miss Dragonfang jokingly punched Phlox arm, finding it unusually tense. Only then did she start to worry and activated her trait to shapeshift her olfactory organs just enough to smell the air with her forked tongue. Most cryptids didn't emit a smell, but what she sensed wasn't a cryptid, it was something far more dangerous.

About five people dressed in a similar fashion yet different enough to be able to tell them apart moved in the surroundings. They were all heavenly rank hunters, but Judging by how they behaved it was obvious that they had yet to notice the party, however, they came from the precise direction they passed five minutes ago.

"Yup, we're in trouble. Those are detectives." Bella said as she turned to run along with the rest of the party. By the time they arrived at the Pegasus, they found out that all the hunting parties that were dispatched during the night encountered the same issue.

Hundreds of detectives started tailing them as soon as the sun arose in the horizon when its first rays hadn't even reached the inside of the megacity. They moved around looking for clues and followed their tracks as though they already knew something was going on at night.

Needless to say, this annoyed Nika who wanted to uplift the company's economy and infuriated Uriel who cursed at them for getting in their way.

"No one was captured or interrogated, so that's a win." Nika informed.

"Yeah, but the fact that they're chasing after us can only mean they're suspecting us for selling so many flux orbs without exiting the city. This will lead them to discover the cryptids inside and in turn cause us to lose our exclusive market." Uriel said with a disgruntled tone.

"Forget about the market, if they realize there are cryptids inside the walls many lives could be saved." Medusa countered. frёewebnoѵēl.com

"Not really, just think of what happened back in our city. Besides, this isn't our city and we have no duty towards them. They took people in as refugees, but only because they can exploit them for barely enough money to survive."

"I know we don't have a duty to this city, but we do have one towards humanity. Didn't you join the army because of that?" Medusa knew that saying it would be akin to a hit below the belt, but she said it nonetheless.

"I volunteered just because it suited me and allowed me to bring back the spare parts you needed when the Pegasus was stuck in the wetlands." Uriel pulled a reverse Uno card out prompting Medusa to fall silent.

"Anyway, I think it's time we meet the big guys of this city. Who knows, maybe they'll even reward us for getting rid of the pests. Exclusivity means nothing if we can't do business at all." Nika sentenced, making them realize that they didn't even have the choice to begin with.

They were cornered in a strange city and they could either come clean about what they knew allowing other hunters to acquire flux orbs or move to a different megacity and take their business elsewhere until they located a dungeon.