[CH598+ Continued] Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power

Far below the thriving businesses in the Ellipsia Citadel, dense green clouds made of divine threads fly by while I continue to plummet downward.

Every few minutes, I try opening up my purple barrier to let as few threads inside as possible.

However, each time, no matter how little the opening is, I'm struck by the same unfathomably painful and instant attack on my physical form.

These passing minutes turn into hours, and it feels as though I'm making no progress at all.

Even with 50% of my world's stats still surging through me, I still feel as weak as an unawakened human in this high pressure environment.

I feel large amounts of green threads assimilate with my body and core each time, growing my True Core's power, but it doesn't change the fact that my physical form is just far too heavy for this realm.

My speed moving downward gets faster and faster, and the thickness of the clouds only increases.

It makes me need to wait longer between each barrier opening, to the point where, between every single exposure, I need almost half an hour to fully process the new threads.

On a positive note, the purple ring around my finger is having a field day devouring as many green threads as it can. Its absorption rate is almost ten times as fast as mine, and it can stay constantly absorbing, effortlessly converting them to its sealed version of purple threads.

This makes the exoskeleton barrier around me far stronger as I fall, but it doesn't make me feel any better, as the difficulty of the work ahead of me only gets tougher and tougher with every minute that passes.

By the time it takes over an hour to process all of the threads, the density of green clouds around me hits their peak.

I'm unable to send a wave of perception out, even in the tiny fractions of a second I get while opening my barrier, as my total concentration is locked on not being devoured by my environment.

However, the fact that the threads aren't getting denser is almost equally as concerning as if they were...

Very soon after this realization comes over me, I see the air below me turn darker green, then fade to black.

I know very well what an abyss looks like; and this isn't it. Even without my maxed-out perception or aura to probe my surroundings, my eyesight is still far better than average.

There must be a ground below.

With no way to eject mana, demonic energy, or even divine power without my certain demise, I just brace for impact.

---

A heavy thud echoes throughout the desolate area, and intense vibrations rattle through my body.

While they aren't nearly as painful as being torn apart by divine threads, the pain is quite unexpected.

I thought my barrier would take the entirety of the force, but the immense amount of weight my body has paired with the speed of impact somehow pushes pressure through the barrier on the impact zone.

Even Celia's emotions ripple through our emotional link, showing confusion at this turn of events, as her skin-tight exo-suit should have absorbed the entire impact.

Nevertheless, all around me, shards of dark black rock fly upward as my body makes a crater in the floor beneath the green clouds.

Surprisingly, not many rocks at all are upset by my impact either; I've only created a hole ten meters deep and double the distance wide at most.