Small ejections of yellow threads are forced out as my core is saturated to its limit, but the threads have nowhere to go and are forced to cycle right back inside from the pressure pushing down toward my core.
I want to yell out in pain as more and more of my flesh disintegrates away and is replaced with a pure green energy form, but I don't want to break my concentration.
Instead of just two to three cycles maximum like before, when the yellow threads stayed stagnant in my body; now they're being forced to cycle through my core hundreds of times.
After about 10 minutes pass, it gets to the point where I hardly have any physical flesh left on my body, and the pain and fatigue become overwhelming.
I release the seal on my purple barrier and reach out to touch the trunks of the trees by my sides.
There's a violent but satisfying outward rush of energy as the green threads are torn away from my body, and I can finally use self-regeneration to heal my flesh and bones.
I lay on the desert floor beneath my obsidian dome panting, covered in sweat while four large green fruits and a few miniature yellow ones form above my head.
It takes a few minutes before I can come completely to my senses and see what's happened.
Unlike the times before, when the expelled yellow threads were absorbed by the trees, this time nowhere near a full fragment was given back to me.
This isn't because the trees were greedy and took more, it's because in a single cycling process, I was able to increase the efficiency even further; absorbing over half of the yellow fragment's energy in just 10 minutes.
Instead of losing part of the divine energy to feeding the trees between every cycling process, I just managed to cut down my energy consumption by a monumental degree.
Before, over 99.9% of the energy from each fragment was lost into the atmosphere after each time it was expelled from my body. Even with the trees helping me contain the energy to cycle again, not even 1% of each fragment stayed in my core after the dozens of processes over a 2-3 hour period. The majority was still eaten up by the obsidian trees.
Now, in a single 10 minute period, over 50% of a fragment was cycled into my core and stayed.
This improvement is so large, it's hard to even quantify it.
"This changes everything..." I whisper under my breath.
My eyes practically sparkle as I cut down the green and yellow fruits to repeat the cycle again.
Over two hours, I manage to consume five yellow fragments in total.
I start each cycling session by saturating my body with as many green threads as I can, then consume as many yellow threads as I can afterward.
Thousands of cycles go by, recycling almost all of a fragment's energy in just two rounds. Hardly any of the yellow fragment's energy is being absorbed by the trees anymore; it's mostly all being cycled back into my core until it stays.
There is a satisfying hot burn in my chest, and my divine core has grown by a noticeable amount.
Its diameter has increased by a few millimeters, giving me confidence that this method of cultivation is exactly the method I need to use to push me far ahead of what should be physically possible for normal lower lifeforms.
In just mere hours, I managed to replicate the cycles that would take hundreds of training sessions and countless yellow fragments for a normal cultivator.
Most likely, all of this energy would be released into the atmosphere, not kept inside my core.
The only problem I fear facing now, is the fact that every time I release from a cycling period, the green threads are being consumed by the trees.
After just eight cycles, almost half of the green energy has been taken away. However, I've managed to incrementally increase the time that I can hold the green energy in my body. It's moved up from just above 10 minutes to my newest record of 17 minutes flat.
It feels like my control over the yellow threads has grown almost twice as strong since the moment I started this process. I can feel the threads swirling in my chest even now, eager to power my movements, but now isn't the time to test out my improved strength..
There's a long way to go.
I pull out another green fruit from my storage to make sure the pressure stays dense enough to push the next yellow fragment's power toward my core, and repeat the process again.
I've found a method that works, so I'm going to exploit it to its maximum potential.
I take a deep breath and prepare for a long and painful process.
24 hours pass.
I cycle through about 60 fragments, and use up all of the energy in 11 of my green fruits.
Over one hundred thousand cycles have made their way through my core, and the hot sensation in my chest has only grown more intense.
It feels like my core is burning bright with energy, and it's grown in size by multiple centimeters in diameter. It's almost grown by 50% in total size.
I'm able to withstand the green threads even longer, reaching upward of a full 30 minutes per session now. However, as the core grows in strength, more pressure is necessary to keep the denser yellow threads compressed.
I begin consuming two green fruits' worth of divine energy at a time.
Every single fragment I consume adds thousands of cycles of threads to the reality-bending reactor that is my core.
Even sitting here, calm and collected, the natural essence that surrounds me makes the air and ground vibrate and bend to the whims of my mind.
I can only guess what the new strength of my core has become, but there is no time for me to waste playing around until this process is complete.
Another 48 hours pass.
Roughly 150 more fragments are fully consumed, and 29 more green fruits are used.
I have to use the divine energy of three to four fruits at a time to keep the yellow threads contained now.
The core grows over a full 10 centimeters in diameter further, tripling in size, and giving off gravity waves so intense while just sitting here that the ground below me caves in after every cycle.
Hundreds of thousands of cycles go by, mimicking the act of passing decades, and I feel my core grow larger and larger in real-time just like the Lich King showed me three days ago.
Another 22 hours and 58 minutes pass...
71 additional fragments are consumed while 16 green fruits are used up.
My energy supplies are hitting their limits, leaving me with a few dozen yellow fragments remaining and a single-digit amount of green fruits left in my storage.
I've grown used to the horrible pain that the green threads give me, ripping my body to shreds, to the point where it feels like a natural state. I'm able to sit for over an hour straight with over five fruits' worth of threads in my body.
It feels like I've mutated even further, allowing me to temporarily stay in a limbo state between flesh and a pure divine energy form.
The yellow core in my chest circulates energy so fast, with hundreds of fragments compacted into it, it gives off a reality-crushing aura that makes me feel like I can rip this entire desert in half if I wanted to.
I feel powerful, but I also feel like this violent energy is not well contained. The core is growing too large and it needs to take a more stable form soon. It feels like it's about to reach its critical mass.
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Author's Note:
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[CH399+ Continued] Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power
FantasyA story following a young hunter named Jay. He has grown up in a world where dungeons, monsters, and humans with leveling systems are a cultural norm. At the age of 20, he awakens a skill that allows him to steal the abilities of monsters. While oth...
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