[CH399+ Continued] Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power

Chapter 516

I deliver them to Bri and she tells me she'll have everything ready for me days before the final deadline. She also received word back from Rodrigo and managed to get our two false identities registered for the B-Class exams.

There will be a pickup point assigned in the Bedrock Region one day before the exams start.

Bri says she can source transport crystals linked to a public hub in the Bedrock Region for me to use before then, so i let her work out the logistics.

The start date of the exams is exactly 3 days after the 30-day deadline for these trade deals. That means once Ember awakes and I've delivered the goods, I have 2 days to get all of my affairs in order before then.

It's all working out perfectly.

Actually, everything has fallen into place even better than my expectations, but I'm happy to see the orders will be fulfilled now with time to spare.

I post new guild offers for the most common items that will most likely be needed for next month's orders, and always accept buying mana crystals, but leave out a lot of the obscure item drops.

The mercenary bars order quantity rises drastically once the guildhall stops accepting certain goods because thanks to my ventures out in the desert, there have been over 500 visitors from the surrounding towns to trade new items.

For now, I accept any coin, marked with the Flame Emperor's emblem or not. However, once its processed through the guildhall, I keep any unmarked currency for myself and always payout hunters with my own marked coins.

Traders from other towns accept that these coins are still made of bronze, silver, and gold. Many return back to their villages with the mark of the Flame Emperor in hand after selling their goods to villagers here.

However, far more wealth is being brought into the town than the amount of coins that are leaving.

It's not only magical gear, lots of items from the grocery stores that are only found in Solara and the Vice region are being resold to travelers that come by at high prices because of their rarity in this portion of the Dark Continent.

The inns outside the barrier need maintenance and attendance, so I appoint managers and workers from the new arrivals that aren't hunters and they find their place in the city very quickly.

A few of the empty storefronts are contracted out to new businesses like pawn shops and cafes, but a majority of them are still empty. There is still far more room to grow.

—

As these days go on, I keep training the elemental elites for about 8-10 hours every day.

They've gotten to the point where they're able to defeat the 39th floor boss in teams of 3-4, and everyone has made it to level 998-999.

Some talented fighters are even capable of defeating the boss monster solo, but I still don't permit this without my direct supervision.

They're all extremely close to ranking up again.

—

Every night after training I continue to farm the containment stones to collapse dungeons, and fill my inventory with another 29 luminite fragments.

Using over 2 trillion more MP from the leftover containment stones, I bring the B-Grade dungeon's monsters up to level 915-930. The boss monster reaches level 945. It feels like I'm getting closer to the double-ranked-up monster goal for this experiment, but the rate at which the dungeons levels increase is slowing down even more.

In addition to this, I drain my Soul Energy Core down to near zero every singel day, making the Crimson Barrier far stronger.

The reformation of Soul Energy gets faster every time, and the volume and potency of energy within me continues to rise.

Since the first day I started doing this 2 weeks ago, it feels as if my capacity to wield Soul energy has risen in strength by over 50%. My flames are burning hotter, denser, and more deadly than ever. I haven't had any opponents to test it out on yet, but it feels as if I would have probably stood a chance against the 43rd floor boss in a one on one fight without even using my lifesteal or equivalent exchange. My strength is rising at a steady rate.

I stop by Valor City to pick up another 100 Qi pills once I've burned through the entire supply Monk gave me before.

He's surprised at the rate I'm using them, but doesn't question it and gives me another 100, showing that his rate of farming is still faster than the rate at which I'm using them; but I don't think that will be the case for long.

The mine is producing between 350-400 Qi pills per week. 200 is going straight to isolated storage, while the remaining is being used to find a cure for the Lich King's aftermath, and training materials for myself and others within the monastery.

It is sufficient for now.

Every time my Soul Energy capacity rises, I need more Qi and more Mana to reform the entirety of the newly grown base. This shouldn't be an issue in the near future, but at some point, I will need even more Qi than this if I want to get stronger.

To attain exponential growth, this rate of production will not be enough.

That aside, I get to witness Monk's treatment of his master again today, and when his eyes open, he manages to sit up and turn his head toward us.

The old man is awake for almost a full minute, but doesn't speak more than a few words to preserve his energy.

As he rests his head back down and closes his eyes, I nod and turn to Monk.

"That is definitely progress... Maybe he'll be up and walking on his own in a few weeks."

He smiles.

"I believe so too. When this works, I can have my students in the monastery perform the treatment on the fighters you rescued too."

I nod.

"Perfect."

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Once back in the Crimson City, I make my way down to the Bunker beneath the guildhall to check on Ember in the isolation pod.

It's been 3 weeks since he entered that pod. Meaning over 240 days have passed inside. Less than 9 days remain on the timer at the top of the pod, meaning about 100 more days are left inside.

It hums very lightly, and no excess or unique energy signatures come off of it at all.

I expected something odd to happen, but no clues at all are shown to the outside.

His status shows in my Rising Emperor's Domain interface, and even it is unmoving.

There aren't even irregular mana, Qi, or soul energy fluctuations inside the pod.

Whatever Ember is doing in there is a complete mystery to me, and undetectable to all of my senses.

With just 9 days left until the trade deals meetings start, and 12 before the B-Class exams begin, I still have a lot of work to do to get the Crimson City in a stable position before I go.

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Author's Note:

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