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

Chapter 793

I raise an eyebrow, but Ava is the one to reply since she's the one who asked about the tickets in the first place.

"What do you mean once it reaches zero? We can't enter now and relax until the tournament begins?"

The servant shakes its head slowly, maintaining an unchanging, neutral expression.

"Of course not. The Capital City is only open to the public above 2nd Class, those attending the tournament, and of course Adventurers who have completed at least one crown cycle."

Ava and I have a mental back-and-forth, and she voices the questions we're both wondering...

"Adventurers? And crown cycles? What... exactly do you mean?"

The Demon wastes no time and points to the strange, translucent crown floating above its head.

"Adventurers of the Wilderness. Once a Lord enters, their avatar begins gaining experience—finding treasures, fighting wild beasts sent here from planets with less intelligent life, and even killing other Lords in hostile zones. While one can live a peaceful life in the safe areas and let experience build through time spent within the citadel, many opt to explore."

The Demon zooms out on the holographic visual it was showing us and begins scrolling through the hundreds of thousands of kilometers worth of terrain again. It's clear from the mild shock on our faces that none of this was known to us before coming here.

While I could easily put up a concealment barrier and shield our surprise, showing this genuine reaction reinforces the image that we're just random new Lords.

'It would be better than turning back or just spending a week in the Trading Terminals,' Ava's voice echoes in my mind.

'Right... We could probably complete one of those crown cycles pretty easily, given we're no normal lords... And might find something even more interesting than what we were initially after in the meantime,' I reply while looking at the crown floating above the avatar's head, not even trying to hide my interest now.

I speak out loud to confirm, "Then we'll go into the wilderness. We can leave anytime we want, right? If we want to go to the trading terminals before leaving for the tournament."

The demonic servant smiles for the first time since we arrived and nods.

"Very good. Allow me to make adjustments to your avatars to link you to the Citadel. These Ellipsia commands are quite outdated... And yes, of course, you can leave whenever you wish once you're in the safe zones."

The guard taps away at his system, making the hologram of the Citadel disappear, and new white pulses of aura flow through us.

It begins altering and making technical changes to the disguise of ether commands I've layered my body with and does the same to Ava. Only the outer layer of her avatar, which I created to make her seem like a legal Ellipsia citizen, is altered—none of her true form or the base created by Asic and Torvak are touched.

These are extremely surface-level changes, but for a normal Lord who would be living in this avatar rather than just using the commands as a fake shield, they would be extremely invasive.

I don't even raise an eyebrow and let it happen, as a 5th Class human should not have enough perception to understand what is even going on.

A few seconds later, two flashes of light around us signal that this guard is finished, and there is a very obvious difference to our appearances.

I turn to Ava and see three grey crowns slowly rotating above her head. They're about half the size of the demonic guard's.

My eyes tilt upward, and I see five even smaller translucent grey crowns slowly spinning around my own head.

There is a small amount of ether that I used to create these commands to disguise myself, as I've mimicked the energy output for a real lord's basic grade avatar. The first thing I sense is a slow leak of energy coming off this ether manifestation, extremely slowly pooling into one of the crowns.

An instant mental note from Ava tells me she feels the same thing...

If these commands were placed on any normal Lord, this pull would be coming directly from their ether pools.

I crack a grin, now certain that something extremely different from what is being portrayed on the surface of this Citadel is happening within.

"And that's it?"

The demonic servant continues to tap away at his system. "Yes. I will program a safe route down to one of the more tame hostile zones for you to get a taste for the wilderness..."

A small map appears in my mental vision, but there is nothing on it. It is just blank.

The demon stops tapping his system and steps aside as the door to the outside green zone of the Upper Realm closes.

"Wherever you travel, that map will fill in a detailed replica of what you have seen. Even information like this can be traded for crown experience. So, please walk forward into the Wilderness."

The Demon's smile grows even larger, almost to a creepy extent.

Where it's pointing is just a blinding white light, but I can feel that it is just densely packed ether commands, and my curiosity to find out the truth about this wilderness and the real purpose of these crowns is killing me.

Ava looks my way, and we both nod together. Then, walk forward to pass through the outer walls of the Grand Citadel using [Entry Point 021458] as intended.

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Author's Note:

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