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

Chapter 748

Beneath the black access card he hands the guard, there is a fragment of medium-quality ether crystal.

While the majority of Lords in this zone of the Upper Realm cannot successfully absorb a highly refined piece of Ether like this, it is still worth a large amount when sold to the right buyer—especially here in the Fortress.

The 1.0 Medium Quality Ether Crystal Ember brought into this Realm is roughly worth 1,000,000 Low Quality Ether. Of course, that would be highly dependent on the buyer and circumstances of the sale. A lower-grade avatar without the proper commands in place would never be able to contain even a fraction of a crystal like this that is being traded in physical form for that very reason.

Even so, it can be traded for bulk orders of worlds. For Orcs, a common use case is buying pure crystallized mana to send down to the lower realm to attempt forcefully raising the Class Rating on current worlds over the course of a few tens of thousands of years.

At the very least, it can be traded directly for low-quality ether to the demonic guards that come and go from the Fortress to the Grand Citadel.

Everyone knows questionable business is done here, but the automated surveillance system rarely punishes those that break the rules. As long as one keeps their transactions under the radar and not breaking any major regulations, it will all be ignored.

The old guard allows the crystal to fall into his ether storage upon grabbing the access card and pretending to scan it, then nods.

"Looks like you're right on time."

The guard presses an action in his system interface, gives the card back, and then steps aside to allow the massive door to open up slowly.

Along the hundreds of doors on the side of this single cube floating in the sky, this is the only door opening; though no one cares to turn a head. Business as usual is going on in the Fortress.

Randel then refreshes his memory of the map Torvak showed him as well, with the half-dozen security checkpoints along the way, with specific other guards that will guide him where to go once he shows them this card and gives them their share of ether.

The two Red Ogres smile, but the High Orc's expression doesn't change at all.

As the two disappear into the darkness of the Fortress to complete their task, the doors shut, and the guard stands in front as its guardian, staring off into the endless green clouds, just as it has for the last 64,000 years.

–

3 Full Days Pass.

–

Although the two Red Ogres have been nervous and sweating through their entire stay in the Fortress—walking deeper and deeper into the dark hallways, waiting rooms, and strange zones of the massive structure in the sky—they make it down to the long-term storage room in 3 days with a single medium-quality ether fragment left to spare. It is roughly 1/12th the size of the original crystal Torvak received, still a small fortune.

The last guard opens the black stone door of their storage unit where this access card brings them, and then they are left alone in silence.

The walls of this small cramped room are lined with tightly sealed storage containers. They're stacked up to the ceiling, so there's at least a few hundred of them, but the room is just a few meters taller than the Red Ogres. It'd be impossible for Torvak to even stand up in a room like this.

There isn't a single item out of its containment case, but it's clear that whatever raw materials are in these containers are extremely high-value and most likely tens of thousands of years old. Their ambient ether is leaking out of the outdated containment case technology. Yet, it is extremely potent.