Chapter 39: Exploring the museum

Chapter 39: Exploring the museum

Uriel made sure to carefully study the carvings on the pedestal beneath the smartphone. Reading modern day words like 'smartphone' written in an ancient language should have been difficult, but somehow it was pretty straightforward and this left him pleasantly surprised to say the least.

[Artifact] Samson smartphone: The latest and most advanced smartphone created by the Samson company, due to its high price it was considered to be rather luxurious. Not many people were able to acquire it before the company's downfall, making it a rare find.

[Passive] While not stored inside the museum will provide useful notifications.

[Passive] It will keep functioning even inside the museum.

[Passive] It will slowly recharge its battery while stored inside the museum.

"This is incredible!" Uriel repeated, still mesmerized by all the useful abilities of his newly acquired artifact.

Now that he possessed four artifacts the exhibition room didn't look so empty, in fact, Uriel wondered how many more artifacts will he be able to store since the distance between each pedestal was considerable. This wasn't unusual in museums, the most important artifacts would always be showcased far from each other to give them the proper spotlight.

There was the swiss army knife, the revolver, the smartphone and... a magazine?

'What's this about?' Uriel thought inwardly as he had already forgotten about the magazine he picked up at the luxurious office when he was searching for a fire extinguisher. What he saw left him perplexed, it was a feeling so powerful he actually gasped. The magazine was... pornographic.

[An old magazine] This magazine is a 'Lewd Ladies' collector's edition, it reflects the values of the pre-apocalyptic western society in which the image of women was commodified for young adults. Promotes the objectification of women with the intent to satisfy male desire.

[Active] Provides accurate measurements of feminine figure. Must be stored inside the museum to activate it, triggered by eyeing someone with lustful intent.

'What kind of crap is this!? I have no use for something as dirty as this!' Uriel was discombobulated and because of his mental state, he couldn't keep focus and was thrown off his museum.

Back to reality and facing the dimly lit room again, Uriel was left astonished by his finding. It wasn't just a magazine but a pornographic one, still, his trait considered it worthy as a cultural object and he couldn't deny its possible worth because it was a collector's edition.

He didn't like the fact that he needed to keep it inside his museum, but just the thought of taking it outside to sell it made him blush brightly in embarrassment.

Yes, he could see pretty much everything if he focused properly, but even the weakest creature was horrifying.

Uriel went back to his museum as soon as he could, and in a much better mood than before. He thought of different ways he could make use of his artifacts, not the dirty magazine, but the actual useful ones.

Like his revolver, possessing a ranged weapon that can appear or disappear at will was an incredible advantage against humans and cryptids alike. It was capable of inflicting a lot of damage to cryptids which was strange because pre-apocalyptic weapons were supposedly useless against such creatures. As if that wasn't good enough, he could acquire ammunition just by storing the gun inside his museum. It would have been the perfect weapon for him, if only he had any prior training with fireguns. Still, all he needed to do was get some practice and become better at shooting.

Then came his swiss army knife, it had already proving its worth by making it possible to acquire the Magnum with the lockpick, but it also possessed different tools and the knife was so sharp it was good enough to perform a surgery on an ascended apparently.

Finally, his smartphone. This was a tricky one because although it didn't seem to be that useful in battle, it could prove to be his best artifact yet. Just the fact that it was able to work properly even inside his museum meant that he would probably still be able to use it even in the presence of cryptids but more importantly, there was a strange app on it called 'system'. At first, Uriel thought nothing of it, but after fidgeting with his phone for a while he noticed something incredible, something that changed the way he perceived his trait entirely.

>System:

Rank: [Evolved] Human with mutated cells that can store and tap into flux energy.

Title: [Dumpster diver] Acquired by rummaging through trash looking for something useful. [Scavenger] Acquired by salvaging resources from a lost city. [Thief] Acquired by stealing from a corpse.

Trait: Museum

Available exhibitions:

Pre-apocalyptic (4/6)

Stat points:

Strength: 4+1

Speed: 2+1

Flux: 1