Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

We leave the dining lounge and walk through the streets on the other side of town from where we entered.

I've counted exactly 362 Lords in total in this safe zone, which really isn't much... There are far more wild, unintelligent beasts in the wilderness.

We still get a few glances as we walk past the housing areas—some Lords recognize us from the Adventurers' Hub, while others are just enamored by Ava's unique appearance.

The three of us walk through the outer barrier of the safe zone and out into the chilling snow environment of the horned rabbits. Immediately, I feel the protective avatar commands I witnessed in the dueling rooms dissipate, as any attacks that hit us from other Lords would not be blocked.

I pull up the mental map of nearly 150 biomes that we've obtained and start pinpointing ones that have data on the monsters present that could benefit us.

–

As we trek straight through the rolling hills of snow, occasional trees, and small 5th Class horned rabbit monsters that barely make it up to my knees in height, I outline the map of where I'd like to go with my two travel partners.

Ava is excited to play around with her new avatar. Even if she has to hold back a lot to fit in, stretching her legs and killing some monsters is far more exciting than standing in a dark room in Ellipsia while assimilating with her avatar for days.

Ren, on the other hand, stays quiet and expressionless as we make our way through the entire snow biome at a very steady pace.

–

Over six hours pass as we venture further into the wilderness, passing through rocky canyons, deserts, forests, strange fields full of crimson grass, entire mountains made of clear crystals, a black obsidian flatland with bright blue trees, and many more strange environments with primarily 4th and 5th Class beasts.

Very rarely, a 3rd Class monster appears, but they are nowhere near as stealthy or powerful as that serpent we fought in the Eden Forest. It makes me think about how rare it probably was and makes the reaction of the other intelligent Lords wanting to buy our coupons make much more sense.

Notifications ding in my inner ear as we make our way through, and I collect 1,033.7289 Low Quality Ether in total from a few dozen kills per biome that add up.

I've come to make an educated guess now that each crown killed in a 5th Class monster grants 0.2 Low Quality Ether upon their death. This makes the maximum they can drop 1.0 Low Quality Ether, but the majority have less than two crowns full on average.

The 4th Class Lords store 2.5 Low Quality Ether per crown, making their max payout 10.0 Low Quality Ether.

There have only been a few 3rd Class Lords and monsters that I've killed, but comparing these to the wolfman boss, I've come to the conclusion that there is 33.3333 Low Quality Ether in a 3rd Class crown, making the full set 100.0 Low Quality Ether.

I only have one clear data point on a 2nd Class beast, and its crowns were completely full, granting almost 1,000 Low Quality Ether in a single shot...

In the grand scheme of things, this much Ether is not very much. Everyone in this wilderness is extremely weak. It's no wonder Demon's have dominated this Zone of the Upper Realm...

I upgrade [Enemy Detection], [Bloodlust], [Dual Wielding], and [Screech] to [Divine Grade] after we've trekked through almost half of the biomes I wanted to get to.

–

However, as we get further away from the safe zone we left, the average strength of monsters does increase slightly.

Fewer 5th Class beasts appear, and the sightings of 3rd Class monsters increase a bit.

We stop into every safe zone along the way and check the Adventurers' Hub for more interesting quests, but don't find a new one that stands out until the ninth visit.

"It's another 2nd Class bounty... Looks like it's been out for nearly three months too, just like that serpent," Ava says to me while pointing at the wall of an identical Adventurers' Hub.

There are fox-like Lords and a green ogre race that co-occupy this safe zone, but all of the amenities are exactly the same.

The housing outside is in a perfect line, made of native materials, and the three center buildings are exact replicas, just like every single safe zone. When I did a scan through the weak point in the dueling rooms, I got a simple picture in my head of the outer boundaries of all these safe zones, with their avatar commands and a black-and-white visual in my mind.

Though, seeing it in person for the last few hours has been quite the sight.

"Perfect, we'll take it," I reply as Ava taps the quest pop-up and we head out into the green ogre's mountain biome.

It takes less than 15 minutes to find the deep crater in the ground in the center of a heavy forest area, the only portion of this biome that shows off the vibrant orange dirt.

The exact location of the quest was detailed in the description, so it's no surprise to me that almost a full dozen 3rd Class intelligent Green Ogre Lords all stand around the crater in a circle, taking turns sending their most powerful attacks down into its center.

"This is impossible!"

"I've been at it for 11 days straight, this has to be some kind of joke!"

"An admin may have to interfere soon... I never really thought about our home territory turning into a Black Zone."

"We can just relax at the safe zone until it's dealt with. It's not like this is a dangerous threat."

Their casual conversation hit my ears as we come to the sides of the crater, and I see a massive tortoise at the center of the pit. It has two full crowns above its head.

Its entire body is coated in a shimmering layer of pure mana and divine energy, and a team of three ogres jump down at it, throwing massive attacks burning hot with ether straight at its shell.

They bounce off like it's a ball of rubber, but no one watching is impressed or surprised by the results. They just move along in line and let the next party try their luck.

We step in line and observe the attacks that continue to rain down on it, coming to the consensus that this isn't a normal body-hardening or crystal-creation skill. I think it's something unique, as this barrier looks malleable, like liquid.

"I need the final strike. I want this kill," I mentally send to Ava as we get to the front of the line, and a few ogres start to murmur about us, doubting that inferior races could possibly do what they couldn't.

Ren steps back and whispers, "You two can handle this. I'll watch," as we both jump down into the pit.

Ava falls faster in front of me and charges up a basic ether command to make her fist glow white-hot.

With her other hand, she pulls out one of the wolfman's basic soul swords that we never handed in or tried to sell at the safe zones and tosses it back to me as we fall.

A loud twang fills the air as Ava uses a tiny portion of her strength, similar to the levels she showed during the battle with the serpent, to punch the tortoise's pink glowing shell.

To both of our surprise, it doesn't budge, just like the attacks we've been witnessing. I send a mental message to her to up the ante, even using the power of a 1st Class Lord.

She charges up her other fist and punches it again, with enough force to rival even one of the warlords from Ellipsia in their past forms before I arrived in the Upper Realm.

The amount of ether compressed into this hit is certainly at the level of a premium-grade avatar, and yet, the only thing that happens is a small fluctuation in the strange pink barrier. Though, it does let out a cracking sound.

This is because I've fallen into range, and I'm close enough to use my light magic to manipulate the visuals of the surroundings. Ava plunges small amounts of her true ether, disguised by my prebuilt commands, into this second attack, and the sound of cracking can be heard as the shell breaks.

Ava jumps out of the way once her job is done, and I plunge a basic-grade soul weapon into the opening created to shatter its core and claim the kill.

[Use Absorption]

Skill: Last Defense [Divine Grade]

[YES] [NO]

[Kill confirmed!]

[Reward: 988.3001 Low Quality Ether]

[Add to Crown Pool]

[YES] [NO]

Information about this new skill and the divine threads that transfer the details of its true core ability flow into my mind as I press [YES] on everything.

This technique creates a barrier around the outer layer of the caster's body but uses up their entire MP stores, and the true core integration sacrifices a portion of the caster's divine threads to strengthen the barrier further.

This tortoise was unable to move at all until the skill was deactivated.

While it is an interesting last-resort technique, it isn't very practical to use with my battle style... I'm curious how this monster even got into this situation in the first place, but as the ether is siphoned into my fake shell of an avatar, its memories are lost with it.

—

There is a bit of a shockwave that knocks down about half of the Lords standing too close to the edge, as Ava's use of her true ether was not expected or planned for. Though, luckily, no one is injured...

However, many do look mad, confused, and are eyeing the pieces of the tortoise shell that aren't disintegrating along with its flesh, sizing us up to see if they can steal this kill from us.

Ava sees this too and yells out, taking control of the situation before it goes in another direction.

"You all want a piece, right? Biome maps. Hand over at least ten maps of the surrounding area, full monster documentation, and environment scouting. If you have more than that, speak up—you'll get bigger pieces."

Eyebrows raise at this odd request, but ogres are a very intelligent race and don't question the strangeness of the situation much. Instead, they take advantage of it for personal gains.

I cross my arms and nod, walking up the side of the crater to stand by Ren while watching the line of the strongest ogres in the region hand over their information on surrounding biomes in exchange for pieces of this 2nd Class monster's shell, which looks to be turning black like a dead soul weapon.

In a matter of minutes, the crater is empty, the ogres are walking away satisfied, and over 200 new biomes have been added to our mental maps.

"I guess someone else will turn in that quest reward. We got everything and more out of this," I say while turning in the opposite direction of the safe zone and continuing the trek onward.

Large portions of the map area that was just a straight line from the Ant Lord's contribution earlier have been filled in.

Not only are there more territories that look like they're only filled with 4th and 3rd Class beasts, but the number of Black Zones present themselves in my mind the closer we venture toward the inner city has doubled.

There are about 20 biomes between us and the nearest one, but in a few more hours of farming, I'll get to see one up close and personal for myself.