The first cryptid kill in the gacity of Hollywood was regarded as a milestone in the Dungeon Raiders company, not because of its power or the value of the flux orb they obtained, but because it ant opening the doors to business. It was only the morning after the celebration that problem arose in the form of an argunt being held in Pegasus bridge.
As usual, Uriel wanted to keep the flux orb for himself since it was bound to make him stronger either by increasing his stats or by selling it and allowing him to buy more items from his souvenir shop. Luna backed him up with the condition that no matter what he did with the money, he would buy him a new doll from his souvenir shop.
"Think about it, if Uriel becos stronger it will be even easier for us to kill more cryptids." Luna leaned forward on the table intertwining her fingers in a poor imitation of Uriel's posture.
"You're only saying that because you want him to get you one of those disgusting dolls." dusa argued.
"Uhm... that's obvious, but consider this," Luna fella silent as she herself was having trouble to find a valid reason that would further her point. "I'm a cryptozoologist and the only way I can further my research is with live specins or Uriel's anatomically correct dolls. Which do you think is safer?"
"First, now that Uriel recovered his hand he doesn't really need to beco stronger and second, why should we care about your research? I say we use the orb on the Pegasus so everyone in the company will benefit from it. Tell her, Nika." dusa turned her head to where she assud Nika was sitting, but it was actually Uriel.
"I agree with Luna." Uriel mimicked Nika's voice in a childish attempt to fool dusa.
"Hey! I don't sound like that!" Nika grunted, but dusa turned red in embarrassnt hinting that she had fallen for it.
"Anyway, I'm the CEO so..." Uriel attempted to end the conversation by standing up, but Nika forced him to sit.
"We already talked about this, you can't expect to do all the work and then throw the CEO card in our faces. You need to find a way that will keep everyone happy now or this issue will only beco worse in the future. It's just an entity rank orb, what do you think will happen if we stumble upon another orichalcum vein?"
"Speaking of orichalcum, we're running low." dusa said in a whisper hoping no one would hear her, just so no one could bla her for not informing them in ti.
"What!? How is that possible!? Last ti I checked we still had lots."
"To recharge our batteries I use the extruder, which drains flux energy from orichalcum and turns it into a malleable liquid. Once stored, it starts absorbing flux energy from the atmosphere again until it hardens, but the lting process is so slow I make use of as much orichalcum as I can before it hardens."
"That's great, keep up the good work." Uriel made a thumbs up at her efficient use of her ti.
"Hang on, you said we're running low on orichalcum. Does that an we can't recharge our batteries anymore?" Nika furrowed her brows.
"I wouldn't say we can't, it will just take longer." dusa braced herself to get yelled at by Nika, but what happened instead was the sound of her dropping on her seat.
"That's it, now we're really in trouble." Nika let out.
"It's not so bad, we just need to find another dungeon and... oh... we don't even know where to find another orichalcum vein and this city won't sell batteries to outsiders." Uriel said after understanding the problem.
"Not just that, the Cryptid hunting agency isn't even recharging the batteries of their own hunters. They're hoarding all their resources in case the titan cos here. Without batteries, we won't be able to dispatch half of our hunters to any POIs inside or outside the city." Nika explained, but Uriel didn't agree.
"Why are batteries so important anyway? Many of our hunters have traits powerful enough to deal with most beast rank cryptids and even so monster rank cryptids on their own."
"Now you're just being silly." Nika sighed.
"It's easy for you to say that since you're able to summon your magnum whenever you want, but even people with offensive traits can't rely solely on their firearms. Think of Nika, she's strong enough to kill a beast rank cryptid with a single kick, but even she carries a gun wherever she goes." dusa pointed out.
"Precisely. Firearms alone may not be able to kill a cryptid, but they sure help in keeping the at a distance or disable them while they're regenerating. I'm lucky because I can always retreat back into the shadows, but most hunters can be easily overwheld by sheer numbers." Nika nodded.
"Well, then... what do you propose?" Uriel grunted.
"Before making a decision I need to know what are you using the orichalcum for." Nika asked dusa and this ti the latter was able to pinpoint her location thanks to her voice.
"I'm trying to replicate the dagger I made for Uriel or any artifact for that matter."
"So, you're wasting it in experints?"
"I wouldn't say wasting is the proper term, but so far I've failed to create an artifact. I know it can be done since I did it in the past, but I don't know what is it needed to make it work."
"Isn't it lucky that we have soone in our midst that just happen to know about artifacts and other stuff like that?" Nika said with a malicious grin that, although unable to see it, dusa knew was there.
"If you're thinking of her, just rember that she isn't even part of our company yet." dusa stopped Nika in her tracks.
"I can fix that." Uriel said.
"We know!" Luna, Nika and dusa shouted at the sa ti.
"I was just saying..." Uriel lted over the table like an ice cube.
"Luna, I know how important you're studies are and they've been pretty useful for us..."
"There's no need to sugar coat it for her." dusa interrupted anticipating an incoming 'but' that never ca.
"That's why I'll be allocating a part of our inco to cryptozooly research. You'll be free to spend it however you like and if Uriel doesn't want to buy the dolls you want, just tell and I'll take care of him."
"But..."
"I'm not done yet, dusa, your experints to create artifacts have the potential to be a ga changer, but so far you've failed to produce anything useful. For the ti being, it's just a waste of resources. For the ti being, you won't receive any funds for your experints. However, you'll receive a portion of our earnings to repair and improve the Pegasus.
Keep in mind that you can't use it for your experints or I'll put Stella in charge of the ship's maintenance."
"Good, now that everything's been solved..."
"Not so fast! Your tis spending the company's funds like they're your own have co to an end. I know that keeping the credits in your card allows you to use the souvenir shop and this has proven to be useful almost everyday. Because of that, we'll now use your personal account as if it was the company's and it will be under strict vigilance."
"That's a violation of privacy!" Uriel rebuked.
"That's why I'll be doing it myself."
"Just because it's you it doesn't make it any better." Uriel insisted.
"I know, but if I cared about your privacy I wouldn't sneak in your room at night." Nika said with a bare face that reminded Uriel that even though Nika's attitude had beco fitting of a director of operations, she was still the sa shaless Nika.
'At least now she wears pants.' Uriel inwardly thought as a wry smile was drawn on his face.
"With this settled, the only thing left to do is to sell the entity rank orb we acquired and start drafting our budget. At tis like this I really miss Janett, she was really good with paperwork."
"Who's Janett?" Uriel asked.
"How can you not rember her? She was the liaison between us and the governnt." dusa furrowed her brows in disapproval.
"It's the annoying woman that used to work in the Cryptid hunting agency and then worked as a receptionist." Luna added noticing that dusa's words were insufficient.
"Oh! Right, the one that betrayed us. We should probably try to get a new Janett." Uriel nodded.
"I don't think she betrayed us, at least not from her perspective. She joined the company because of Sam and left with him. Anyway, we'll leave that for so other day.
After what happened yesterday, I bet the authorities are looking for people matching our description so it should be safer to stay inside for a while." With those words, Nika finished the eting and everyone was free to do whatever they wanted.
Except, none of them had the funds to actually do that and they couldn't even go outside, so instead they settled with moodily roaming the ship.
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