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

A burning hot white hammer slams into me, sending me flying into another pile of rocks before I can even heal from our first collision.

My body feels as though it's covered with pins and needles, and the third attack is coming my way faster than I can react.

Ava's voice rings out as she slams me across the black stone landscape again.

"Say the word and I'll take it down a notch, but I can keep this up all day!"

Half my mind is concentrated on summoning wisps of Ether to flood into the impact zones, but I yell back, "Don't hold back. Fight as if you're trying to kill me... we only have two and a half days until that District Lord comes back, right? I want to be prepared for the worst."

Before my words finish, I'm hit with her hammer again. "As you wish!"

There is no direct physical pain or damage to my body. The divine barrier around me absorbs all of the pressure, but massive amounts of Ether seep into my being after every hit.

Ava's hammer is glowing just as white-hot as in our first battle, but so are her feet. I watch white Ether strengthen her hamstrings, quads, and even arms when she swings.

Her entire body is glowing hot with Ether, and every single time I try to predict her movements and add layers to certain areas of my body, it's far too late.

The next hour results in me being bashed around the abandoned mines like a ragdoll.

While that's what it looks like from the outside, I am gathering very valuable data and actively trying to improve after every single exchange we have.

Over three hundred exchanges pass, and all of them end with me being hit in a new place on my body.

It's a familiar sensation; in our last spars, I was hit hundreds of times as well, but these hits permeate deep into my being.

On the lower setting, these lingering tingles didn't last as long, and I didn't have to summon as much Ether to heal myself.

Now, I'm using just as much Ether to heal as I am to block and throw attacks. While throwing more attacks makes it easier to summon Ether faster, healing tingling areas of my body becomes second nature the more I do it.

My entire body glows bright white as tens of impact points are being simultaneously healed by the time Ava speaks up after slamming me into another rock structure.

"All right, that's time. Let's load up on more Ether. I've already burned through 20% of what I just absorbed. I think that's the most Ether I've ever used in a single session in my entire life. I'd say you're crazy, but you managed to improve before... so I guess premium avatars just have a learning curve to them..."

Ava is breathing as heavily as I am, and she's smiling ear to ear.

If the 20% number she mentioned is true, and I used the same amount of Ether as she did, that's roughly 0.1 gone, maybe more.

I remember the throne stating I had about 1.2 Ether in my body. Whether that was all from the pill, or some from the herb, I'm not entirely sure.

My guess is I managed to pull around 0.3 from the four Ether stones earlier, but it still feels like I'm pulling from an endless pool. There's no status reading that tells me how much Ether I have.

I reply, still glowing white all over in my perception. "Good idea. If we keep this up, I'll definitely get the hang of it soon..."

She laughs as I fall on my back, smiling and breathing heavily while I finish healing the remaining tingling wounds all over my body.