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

"What do you mean, sense them?" the hobgoblin replies, picking up the black stone glowing with a faint white light.

As I open my mouth to reply, I witness the entire rock she holds become enveloped in a portion of her green aura. Then, all the Ether within it pulses and is sucked out, disappearing into her hand and settling evenly throughout her being.

The instinctual sensor in the back of my mind registers her body as slightly warmer than before, and the rock she's holding becomes undetectable.

It is lifeless and black when she drops it back onto the ground and speaks again, holding her hammer up, ready to fight.

"Come on, answer me. You're telling me you can see where Ether Stones are? Is that some kind of new feature? Not even the Lords with High-Grade Avatars can do that... Do you have a Premium Avatar or something?"

I don't speak again. Clearly, I'm even more out of my element than I thought.

With my hands raised, I shrug and turn to my left, slowly walking 20 meters from where I started in silence as the hobgoblin's eyes track my every movement.

I'm unable to detect the exact positioning of each Ether Stone, but a strange pull in my mind gets hotter the closer I get to ones nearby. The rough direction of about a dozen stones in a hundred-meter radius floats in my subconscious, directing my footsteps.

I stop in place and dig through the loose black stones again, burrowing about two meters beneath the surface until I grab another black rock glowing with a faint white mist.

Then, I jump out of the pit I've dug and hold it up.

"Like this... they're everywhere. It's not like I tried to rob you of a rare resource."

She looks even more suspicious now, yelling from a distance.

"I don't trust you! That could be a fake so you have time to run away. Throw it here so I can scan it."

I let out a sigh and toss it her way. The stone is clearly glowing bright white, unlike all the others around here. I'm unsure how I'd fake it, but I just do as she says.

Once it tumbles to her feet, she bends down and looks at the stone for a few seconds. Her eyes widen as she picks it up.

The same green divine aura expands around the stone, and in the exact machine-like process, the stone is drained of its Ether, which evenly distributes throughout her body.

She looks up at me with excitement.

"What kind of Premium feature is that? Are there command contracts available to acquire sonar skills now? All my avatar grants me is that high-speed shielding technique—same as yours—and, of course, the Soul Weapon Assimilation to use Ether in my hammer attacks..."

Again, her words make no sense to me, but I begin to piece things together based on what I've seen so far.

Clearly, my ability to sense where Ether Stones are is special.

However, she believes it must be a Premium Avatar feature. I remember, back inside the throne, I was scanned, and it showed my available mana core, demon core, divine core, and Ether Stores.

It makes sense that a demon with a Noble Bloodline would get a Premium Avatar, which appears to be top of the line in this realm. But the thing is, I don't even have an Avatar... This is my real body, so all her logical guesses only confuse me more.

I decide to go along with what she already believes. Telling her this is my real body would be even harder to explain.

"Yeah, it's something like that... a Premium Avatar. Like I told you before, I fell down here on my way to the Ellipsia Citadel. I'm not here to steal from your mines. If anything, I'd gladly pay you to help me get back above the clouds to meet back up with my soul-bonded pair, if you know a way."