Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

Ember stands in silence on the top floor of the High Orc Tower.

His gaze is steady on the sleeping berserker in front of him, but the back of his mind—and his perception, which can see through ether structures with ease—watches the four generals within the central tower.

Small fluctuations ripple through his senses as they begin to absorb the energy in their respective floors.

Once all of the necessary mana and qi per floor is absorbed and processed, complex arrays bound to Noble Vibrations teleport the generals to the floor above.

While the bottom floor does not have any divine threads, the second floor does, and the four generals are in for a rude awakening once they feel the pressure and realize they have 998 floors to go.

There are barely enough threads in the room for them to maintain their green, denser form. If not for the dense ether and echoes of Noble Vibrations stacked perfectly to hold them in place, they would have already dispersed into yellow threads in these wide-open rooms.

After pulling the dense liquid pools of energy in the air toward them, the divine threads naturally flow toward their cores, and the artificial shackles placed on them dissolve, allowing each general to face the green threads alone.

In such a controlled environment, it is possible for them to wait long enough for the threads to be processed and revert to yellows if they expend enough of their true core's energy.

This was proven during the fight within the throne on the human world, when The Rising Emperor consumed an orb of green threads while still at the yellow core.

The green threads strengthened the yellow Astral Form temporarily but were expelled during battle with Drako Vermillion, saving the physical body as it was not ready for this degree of pressure yet.

The generals face this challenge on a much safer and smaller scale.

Maria drains the second room without much issue. The green threads stream through her body, burning and tearing away at her flesh and blood-bonded armor. Yet, using my self-regeneration skill, these are healed just as quickly.

Raven and Arie go through a similar process, but their body language shows they are in far more pain.

Abby, on the other hand, absorbs the green threads without flinching. They seem to flow right through her and begin tinting her true yellow core green.

–

Ember grins to himself as the fluctuations of energy waves occur more and more often, with dozens of floors being cleared over these eight hours.

None of the generals have used their greater forms yet, and the starting stages are more to get them accustomed to the feeling of green threads in their bodies.

Soon, the real challenge will begin. Simply withstanding the threads and simultaneously healing will not be enough on the higher floors. They will all need to find a way to mutate their bodies and systems to survive in the Upper Realm.

–

Meanwhile, the demonic servant responds to Ava's request to get tickets for the tournament event within the grand Citadel.

"Excellent. I will add you to the waiting list now."

A few seconds pass, then a subtle wave of ether links to our avatars, and a countdown window displaying just under seven days appears in my avatar's subconscious.

"Then, in the meantime, would you still like your trip to the trading terminals, or would you like to explore the wilderness? Once that timer reaches zero, fast travel commands will bring you both to the center of the citadel where the arena awaits. Until the first event begins, you are both still eligible to enter as fighters as well."

I raise an eyebrow, but Ava is the one to reply since she's the one who asked about the tickets in the first place.

"What do you mean once it reaches zero? We can't enter now and relax until the tournament begins?"

The servant shakes its head slowly, maintaining an unchanging, neutral expression.

"Of course not. The Capital City is only open to the public above 2nd Class, those attending the tournament, and of course Adventurers who have completed at least one crown cycle."

Ava and I have a mental back-and-forth, and she voices the questions we're both wondering...

"Adventurers? And crown cycles? What... exactly do you mean?"

The Demon wastes no time and points to the strange, translucent crown floating above its head.

"Adventurers of the Wilderness. Once a Lord enters, their avatar begins gaining experience—finding treasures, fighting wild beasts sent here from planets with less intelligent life, and even killing other Lords in hostile zones. While one can live a peaceful life in the safe areas and let experience build through time spent within the citadel, many opt to explore."

The Demon zooms out on the holographic visual it was showing us and begins scrolling through the hundreds of thousands of kilometers worth of terrain again. It's clear from the mild shock on our faces that none of this was known to us before coming here.

While I could easily put up a concealment barrier and shield our surprise, showing this genuine reaction reinforces the image that we're just random new Lords.

'It would be better than turning back or just spending a week in the Trading Terminals,' Ava's voice echoes in my mind.

'Right... We could probably complete one of those crown cycles pretty easily, given we're no normal lords... And might find something even more interesting than what we were initially after in the meantime,' I reply while looking at the crown floating above the avatar's head, not even trying to hide my interest now.

I speak out loud to confirm, "Then we'll go into the wilderness. We can leave anytime we want, right? If we want to go to the trading terminals before leaving for the tournament."

The demonic servant smiles for the first time since we arrived and nods.

"Very good. Allow me to make adjustments to your avatars to link you to the Citadel. These Ellipsia commands are quite outdated... And yes, of course, you can leave whenever you wish once you're in the safe zones."

The guard taps away at his system, making the hologram of the Citadel disappear, and new white pulses of aura flow through us.

It begins altering and making technical changes to the disguise of ether commands I've layered my body with and does the same to Ava. Only the outer layer of her avatar, which I created to make her seem like a legal Ellipsia citizen, is altered—none of her true form or the base created by Asic and Torvak are touched.

These are extremely surface-level changes, but for a normal Lord who would be living in this avatar rather than just using the commands as a fake shield, they would be extremely invasive.

I don't even raise an eyebrow and let it happen, as a 5th Class human should not have enough perception to understand what is even going on.

A few seconds later, two flashes of light around us signal that this guard is finished, and there is a very obvious difference to our appearances.

I turn to Ava and see three grey crowns slowly rotating above her head. They're about half the size of the demonic guard's.

My eyes tilt upward, and I see five even smaller translucent grey crowns slowly spinning around my own head.

There is a small amount of ether that I used to create these commands to disguise myself, as I've mimicked the energy output for a real lord's basic grade avatar. The first thing I sense is a slow leak of energy coming off this ether manifestation, extremely slowly pooling into one of the crowns.

An instant mental note from Ava tells me she feels the same thing...

If these commands were placed on any normal Lord, this pull would be coming directly from their ether pools.

I crack a grin, now certain that something extremely different from what is being portrayed on the surface of this Citadel is happening within.

"And that's it?"

The demonic servant continues to tap away at his system. "Yes. I will program a safe route down to one of the more tame hostile zones for you to get a taste for the wilderness..."

A small map appears in my mental vision, but there is nothing on it. It is just blank.

The demon stops tapping his system and steps aside as the door to the outside green zone of the Upper Realm closes.

"Wherever you travel, that map will fill in a detailed replica of what you have seen. Even information like this can be traded for crown experience. So, please walk forward into the Wilderness."

The Demon's smile grows even larger, almost to a creepy extent.

Where it's pointing is just a blinding white light, but I can feel that it is just densely packed ether commands, and my curiosity to find out the truth about this wilderness and the real purpose of these crowns is killing me.

Ava looks my way, and we both nod together. Then, walk forward to pass through the outer walls of the Grand Citadel using [Entry Point 021458] as intended.