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

Ember stands in silence on the top floor of the High Orc Tower.

His gaze is steady on the sleeping berserker in front of him, but the back of his mind—and his perception, which can see through ether structures with ease—watches the four generals within the central tower.

Small fluctuations ripple through his senses as they begin to absorb the energy in their respective floors.

Once all of the necessary mana and qi per floor is absorbed and processed, complex arrays bound to Noble Vibrations teleport the generals to the floor above.

While the bottom floor does not have any divine threads, the second floor does, and the four generals are in for a rude awakening once they feel the pressure and realize they have 998 floors to go.

There are barely enough threads in the room for them to maintain their green, denser form. If not for the dense ether and echoes of Noble Vibrations stacked perfectly to hold them in place, they would have already dispersed into yellow threads in these wide-open rooms.

After pulling the dense liquid pools of energy in the air toward them, the divine threads naturally flow toward their cores, and the artificial shackles placed on them dissolve, allowing each general to face the green threads alone.

In such a controlled environment, it is possible for them to wait long enough for the threads to be processed and revert to yellows if they expend enough of their true core's energy.

This was proven during the fight within the throne on the human world, when The Rising Emperor consumed an orb of green threads while still at the yellow core.

The green threads strengthened the yellow Astral Form temporarily but were expelled during battle with Drako Vermillion, saving the physical body as it was not ready for this degree of pressure yet.

The generals face this challenge on a much safer and smaller scale.

Maria drains the second room without much issue. The green threads stream through her body, burning and tearing away at her flesh and blood-bonded armor. Yet, using my self-regeneration skill, these are healed just as quickly.

Raven and Arie go through a similar process, but their body language shows they are in far more pain.

Abby, on the other hand, absorbs the green threads without flinching. They seem to flow right through her and begin tinting her true yellow core green.

–

Ember grins to himself as the fluctuations of energy waves occur more and more often, with dozens of floors being cleared over these eight hours.

None of the generals have used their greater forms yet, and the starting stages are more to get them accustomed to the feeling of green threads in their bodies.

Soon, the real challenge will begin. Simply withstanding the threads and simultaneously healing will not be enough on the higher floors. They will all need to find a way to mutate their bodies and systems to survive in the Upper Realm.

–

Meanwhile, the demonic servant responds to Ava's request to get tickets for the tournament event within the grand Citadel.

"Excellent. I will add you to the waiting list now."

A few seconds pass, then a subtle wave of ether links to our avatars, and a countdown window displaying just under seven days appears in my avatar's subconscious.

"Then, in the meantime, would you still like your trip to the trading terminals, or would you like to explore the wilderness? Once that timer reaches zero, fast travel commands will bring you both to the center of the citadel where the arena awaits. Until the first event begins, you are both still eligible to enter as fighters as well."