Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

Chapter 751

Ava looks into her system, and just seconds after sending her report of the Realm Wave to the Lower Realm, a series of pings hit her consciousness from Raven over the next minute.

[Day 9 Update] [Raven]: Message received. We have made it to Kelfar, a world where this additional time will be put to good use.

[Day 10 Update] [Raven]: We've been stationed in private cultivation settings. I can feel the potential in these chambers is far greater here than on the human world. I will be focusing on saturating my core. I will hand the daily communications off to our organizer.

[Day 11 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached]. Generals.

[Day 12 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached]. Prospecting footage.

[Day 13 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached]. More prospecting footage.

Ava's eyes open as all of the visuals sent from the Lower Realm play simultaneously, and she conceptualizes what is happening.

Raven's communication line goes cold, but another human that Ava recognizes from the meeting she briefly attended takes over the updates and sends visuals of the four moons the generals cultivate on—even a peek down into the swirling dark clouds of the Demonic World.

–

Days ago, before the footage of the exploration and cultivation progress was pinged up to the Upper Realm.

–

The four commanders are sent down to the prospecting base and each given a small yellow diamond-shaped artifact to add to their status. It was created by Alveron many millennia ago.

Once equipped, the gem floats in front of their chests and creates a thin layer of mana and thin yellow divine threads around the users.

While it is nowhere near strong enough to fend off actual attacks, it is dense enough to push away the massive planet's demonic energy density. However, the increased gravity is impossible to avoid.

Pure oxygen is released from the gems in intervals. There is a semi-stable atmosphere on this world, similar to the human worlds, but storms of abnormal demonic clouds shift its chemical contents, pulling up elements from the planet's crust, and often they are not breathable for humans.

The artifacts grant surveillance access to Bri and Alveron simultaneously, so live monitoring of the events within the dense black and purple clouds can be recorded and observed from four different points of view.

–

Fisher and Lydia walk in front and behind Monk and Luna.

Luna activates a smaller, more focused version of her ranked-up buff, using her perception to scan the terrain in their general vicinity rather than putting a beacon in the sky for all the Demonic Beasts in their surroundings to see.

Monk does a similar thing, sending pulses of Qi through the rocks to get mental scans of what the environment looks like despite being completely covered in thick black clouds of demonic energy.

The base they've been teleported into seems to be deep within a ravine of what must have been a thriving mountain range in the past.

There are massive mountains and canyons that look to have been carved out by rivers long ago, but all signs of greenery or normal life have long since disappeared; the rivers are now completely dry.

Upon first scan, no artifacts can be found within this ravine, but Monk just looks upward and speaks to the group.

"Our briefing stated most of the artifacts around this base have already been found by search parties in the past. We'll have to go much deeper into this world. My guess is the closer to that throne we get, the more artifacts we'll find."

Luna looks quite concerned at the amount of effort each footstep up a poorly managed pathway out of the ravine takes but begins pulling small amounts of stats to aid her physical movements, and soon it feels as though she's just walking on the human world like normal again.

Fisher, up front, nods and keeps a slow pace while his aura of perception bursts out hundreds of kilometers—far past this mountain range the base is built in, further than everyone else.

"There are some nasty monsters out there... I can already see a few stronger than even those demons we fought off around our throne."

He turns back to look at Luna.

"—And that's not even mentioning the Kings. Arie was right. We're avoiding them at all costs."

Lydia's senses push out in the opposite direction, behind them, and she speaks up while they continue to climb the cliff.

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"Yeah... don't get overexcited. We have weeks to explore. Slow and steady so we don't run into trouble we can't handle."

–

With these words of warning, the group climbs out of the ravine and begins trekking through the mountain range.

While everyone's vision is dark and the gravity is tens of times stronger than on the human world, these four are still some of the strongest humans alive...

It only takes a day to make it out of the mountain range, which has mostly been explored already by other races in the past.

A few times per hour, the ground shakes and the atmosphere wavers with dense yellow threads as, somewhere on this world, the Kings clash again.

However, the only trouble they run into in these parts are a few Demonic Wolves.

They are far stronger than the weak imitations found in the Abyss that was created around the human world's throne, but the water- and ice-wielding commanders easily take care of them before they get anywhere close to Monk or Luna in the center of their formation.

–

Beyond the mountain base lies a far more flat wasteland that appears to have been a desert in the past, stretching outward for a few thousand kilometers.

Upon stepping foot into it, enormous Demonic Sand Worms and High Orcs in dark black armor attack the group as if they're mindlessly protecting the land.

Lydia finds a pathway they can take around the backside of the mountain range to avoid trouble, but Monk points forward after a pulse of his Qi detects something.

"No, we can't... They're protecting this desert for a reason. I sense an artifact... deep in the sand."

Luna summons her many purple and white eyes in the sky and blinks, sending a pulse of energy much further than Monk's senses can go, then nods.

"There are a few... not many, but they seem to be more abundant the further into this region we travel. I think you're right, more artifacts will be found the closer to the tower we get."

At these words, a massive Demonic Sand Worm erupts from the ground, but Fisher was already watching it closely.

He erupts with an aura of intimidation and uses his second ranked-up buff, summoning a shimmering blue water serpent manifestation while he swings his sword downward.

The worm's entire body is sliced in two the long way as it's frozen in fear, and its yellow divine core is shattered.

It isn't even able to get a full screech out before its two halves fall to the sides of the prospecting party, and Fisher points forward.

"Come on, let's go."

–

The following four days are slightly more eventful than the first.

–

Ava watches visuals of this blue swordsman slicing through Demonic Worms and a shimmering white icy woman freezing Demonic Orcs and Wolves that attempt to ambush the group from behind.

They travel thousands of kilometers into what used to be a desert, and Monk digs up seven individual artifacts.

Five of them just look like lumps of black rock, but two of them have strange symbols and etchings on them that Ava cannot read or understand.

The hundreds of soul weapons and armor dropped by the demonic forces on the way through the desert are arguably more valuable, but both Monk and Luna are far more interested in the illegible texts.

Ava, however, recognizes a visual sent to her on the final day of messages.

The group of four finally comes across a terrain change, as a massive skeleton of a defeated monster from long ago lies in the center of this desert region.

–

The Goblin Queen can't help but squint as she looks down at the holograms sent—merely vague divine energy manifestations of what they see in the darkness of the demonic energy—but it's quite obvious what she sees.

"Is that... a Wyvern...?"

This is what Ava whispers while sending a message of her own back to Bri.

[Minute 2] [Ava]: Daily reports received. The second Realm Wave has not hit yet, time is still unstable. Please continue to send progress reports.

As soon as this is sent, five more messages come back within the next minute.

[Day 14 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached]. Prospecting footage.

[Day 15 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached]. Arie consolidated his orange core. Progress is good.

[Day 16 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached]. I consolidated my red core.

[Day 17 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached]. Base tour.

[Day 18 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached]. Prospecting footage.

–

From the titles alone, Ava sees that Arie has already managed to break through to his orange core and wonders what kind of facilities they're using, as the visuals Bri is sending of the generals cultivating are short. Only small snippets of them sitting within rooms with glowing yellow walls that circulate all of the divine threads they expel back toward them are shared.

Far more footage of the underground base that Bri is living in is sent to her than anything of use.

Ava can't help but crack a smile as this human films herself one-handed, walking through all of the luxury facilities she has available to her, ending the recording with a large meal on a floating platter in a hot tub as a celebration for consolidating her red core.

Though, the next ping with footage from the Demonic World is far more interesting than the past updates.

–

Upon discovering the enormous, multiple-kilometer-long skeleton of a Wyvern in the middle of the desert, Monk points below it and yells out.

"Tons of them! At least fifty. I feel tons of originator artifacts under there..."

At the same time, both Fisher and Lydia feel a shiver ripple through them.

Not only have they been slowly trekking closer to the current battlegrounds of the Kings of Kelfar, but on the other side of this skeleton, both of them feel a horde of about a dozen 1st Class monsters.

Their knowledge of world Classes is low, but whatever is on the other side of this skeleton, it's clear they are much stronger than the Sand Worms and High Orcs they've been killing with ease.

All of them have fully compressed True Cores, and they feel as though they are saturated to their limits...

Fisher places a finger to his lips and turns to Monk.

"We have company. If you want to go digging through the ground below this corpse, let us clear out the area first..."

A blue glow shimmers around Fisher, and the yellow threads tethering him to reality begin to bend and crack the ground as he takes footsteps to the left, beginning to circle around the Wyvern near its skull.

Lydia walks forward, then does the same thing, shimmering with bright white eyes and a cold glare while walking to their right side, circling around the Wyvern's tail and whispering to herself.

"Finally, I'll get to try out my new Domain on some strong monsters..."

–

Up on one of the moons circling the planet, Raven opens one eye as her cultivation is disturbed. She is interested to see if Ava has sent another emergency message.

However, it is not what she expected.

It is a message to request access to more of the 4% allotted borrowed stats she has control over as a general.

Raven grins, presses two accept prompts, and closes her one open eye to continue gathering threads to push herself closer to full saturation.

Both Fisher and Lydia borrow a full 1% each to prepare for a battle down on Kelfar.