Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

A brief history of the Vermillion and Morevale families is taught by Seraphel as we make our way further and further from any signs of life.

I learn of a few very interesting facts that widen my perspective on the hierarchy of Demons all the way up the many Zones of the Upper Realm. One fact in particular being that the Vermillion Family head used to be a strong general in the Morevale family army, and that he has a much longer history with the Green Zone of the Upper Realm than just these past few millennia as a Royal Family Head.

The Ellipsia Citadel cannot be sensed at all, and the Exile Zones where Ava continues to farm Ether and bring freed slaves up to the surface leave my senses as well.

Even the transport point where I arrived here from the Lower Realm—a massive cloud of ether and silver threads—we pass this by too, flying so far off into the endless green clouds until finally reaching a point where Seraphel speaks up and lowers his gaze downward.

"This is the way to what's left of the Wyvern's old sanctuary. Maybe it will be put to good use one last time."

–

After Seraphel and I dive down into the clouds and begin my second stage of training, seven full days pass.

–

If the Ellipsia Citadel were ten million kilometers closer, the immense distorted waves of Noble Vibrations coming from deep within the green divine fog would make the small display that caused a citywide blackout seem like a tease.

The taxes being collected by the Demonic Servants aren't any higher than usual, and there has been no cruel mistreatment by the new Noble Demon Lord.

A small disturbance from a few humans in the Maple District has been whispered about but soon forgotten, as no formal report to the Demonic Servants was filed.

In fact, many of the lower races have been thriving more than usual.

This is because a very high number of 5th, 4th, and 3rd Class worlds with low Ether and Mana resources have been bought in bulk for reasonable prices by a team of Demonic Servants led by one named Rukor.

These worlds are thriving with life and system users, but they are not as abundant in resources to farm.

This means they've already been drained, their dungeons will decay in strength, and in the next few decades, the hunter population's level growth is sure to stagnate. It's both an unprofitable short- and long-term investment.

Though, these were the orders given to them by the Citadel Lord, so they are followed out without question.

The general morale of average citizens in the Citadel lightens up a large amount as the lower-class economy was just injected with a million low-quality Ether.

–

At the same time, below the Citadel, as a full week has gone by since Ava began training her Ether sense, the Goblin Queen has become a lot sharper.

The fractures in her Avatar are becoming larger and hotter, sending waves of dense Ether out to let her true form sense her surroundings.

With every new stone she finds and adds to her Ether base, the more this forces her senses to grow stronger as her abilities grow more potent.

She takes advantage of the 4% of stats granted to her as well to speed up the process.

The entirety of the Central Peak is looted, and a large amount of the outer ring is too.

Her Ether stores rise to over 2.2 million low-quality Ether.

Now, she can pinpoint each individual stone with ease and doesn't even need to use the built-in Ether scan commands to verify that the black rocks contain the hot essence.

With the help of a team of Orcs and Red Ogres on the Warlord's payroll, along with a few Demonic Servants put up to the task, the Access Point of the Citadel is triggered to smuggle past slaves in the Exile Zones up into society.

They're all given illegal basic-grade Avatars and 1–3 low-quality Ether to start new lives. Many of the Exile Zone plot renters, who are also citizens of the Citadel, are paid out their contracts to make sure not to cause a riot, while simultaneously retrieving the home worlds of many of the slaves that were working to pay them off.

The furthest plots, better known as the Hollow District—full of 5th Class worlds and mostly useless Ether stones—are not fully farmed by Ava, as it is not worth her time. However, she does make sure to search 100,000 kilometers in every direction to locate every last slave worker and bring them back.

–

The Warlords make a lot of progress during this week as well.

Four tall statues are stood up in a row at the top of the High Orc Tower.

They are dark black, ranging from a few meters in height up to over twenty on the largest of them.

A Berserker Giant, a Blue Ogre, a High Orc, and a Goblin Queen's outlines give off large white clouds of low-quality Ether and make the divine energy in the room hotter and denser nearby.

Asic and Torvak sit back on the other side of the long blackout workroom that they've been in for over a week, both with satisfied expressions on their faces.

Asic speaks up while hooking himself back up to the medical devices on his throne.

"They're complete... I will heal up, then be the first to assimilate to the new Avatars as a trial round. Without adding in any stealth precautions to stay under the surveillance system radars, and limiting ourselves to known Ether commands... I'd say these illegal Avatars are the closest to true bodies we'll ever get... honestly, they're even more advanced..."

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Torvak chuckles, looking in front of the Avatars to see the highest-quality dormant Relic Class Soul Weapon Molds his Ogre Conglomeration had in cold storage inside the same vault as Asic's materials.

"All these need is a Soul Bond confirmation from their wielders. The energy required to wake up the dormant relics has been infused and paired with the new Avatar shells. I'll be ready when you are."

Torvak stands in silence, crossing his arms and smiling while looking over to a far corner of the room where all of the excess materials they didn't use lie. Then, he looks back over to Asic as the pure Ether and Mana start moving through his medical fixtures into his Avatar.

"--And the device for Seraphel, it's done... plus, the materials leftover for Jay. Ember said that human's sword has quite the appetite..."

–

Meanwhile, as his name is being brought up a few blocks away, Ember stares down at Zashen, continuing to send mental attacks his way without letting up for even a millisecond.

The Berserker has been through mental torment for over a full week straight since the minuscule break he had for a fraction of a second during the Realm Wave.

While his mental defenses have been getting tougher and tougher, with his reaction time improving by pure necessity—or else he would die—this isn't the main reason Ember is putting him through such torture.

While his mental defence refinement has progressed further than it has in the entire time he's been gone from the Upper Realm since their last meeting, something even more beneficial is happening to the 1st Class Berserker King deep in the depths of his soul.

This training is to prepare him for the inevitable clash with another Noble Grade being like Andras Vermillion who he faced in that dueling room and barely made it out alive.

Odds are... the environment won't be as controlled, and there won't be any backup to finish the fight for him.

The center of the Berserker's eyes begins to emit a strange crimson aura, one that burns hot like fire.

Ember has seen this monster activate his wind magic and greater Berserker form many times before, using Mana to project a blood-red domain to increase his stats. However, pure Mana could not do what he is witnessing before him now.

Ember's next mental attack doesn't even make it halfway through the Berserker's mental defenses as a strange crimson vibrating sensation overrides its normal Ether defenses.

In order to not let up and ensure the Berserker continues this awakening, Ember activates his full Dragon Form to send his next mental attack down on his training partner.

–

While all of this occurs, I float back toward the Citadel without Seraphel.

The few hours it has taken to fly back while completely suppressing my Noble Vibrations is far easier than the comparable thirty-seven minutes it took for me to break the last time the Blue Wyvern gave me a test like this.

The imagery of the so-called sanctuary of Wyverns Seraphel spoke of is still fresh in my mind.

Though, it is not the mystical lost fortress that I was expecting.

–

[~7 days ago]

Over 10 million kilometers from Ellipsia, the ground is still covered in the dead black stones. However, we reach a point where it dips down, thinning out to reveal what is beneath at what I can only describe as sea level.

There is a line dividing the land of dead worlds, and a massive dark pool of liquid that stretches off even further.

It's impossible to get a solid reading on this dark ocean, like it isn't even there. My eyes can see it, but my senses just show up with a dark black cloud of danger. It smells faintly of Ether, but also gives off the cold radiation of death, similar to the wavelength I felt while briefly speaking with Miriel Vermillion.

Not far offshore, the remains of a fallen Citadel without a reactor, sunken deep into a polluted ocean of grey sludge is what I see.

There are countless towers broken into pieces, sticking out of the endless dark ocean, with far more structures sunken deep beneath its surface.

This stage of training begins when Seraphel tells me to submerge myself in the polluted sea of strange dark corrosive energy.

It feels hot like it's eating away at my skin, yet cold and suppressive like it's trying to gain control of my grasp on the system, but at the same time, it does not have a will that directly targets me. The dark liquid just exists, and it feels very difficult to push my aura through to get a sense of how deep this sea really is.

It's hard to know if this is a naturally occurring liquid, or if it is the result of a reactor spill from a fallen citadel, or if a Noble Lord's power created this wasteland. Even Seraphel stays a distance away from it. I'm not quite sure what it is or how it got here; however, it does have a noticeable amount of low-quality Ether infused within it.

Soaking in the grey waste feels like toxic mud is trying to seep through my skin. Seraphel watches from high above, soaring in circles while I hold my breath and follow his instructions.

The sea is not very physically limiting.

I can easily swim through it, up and out, without a problem; however, my Noble Vibrations and Ether senses hardly make it more than a few hundred meters through the grey sludge at first.

It is an odd feeling, like I've gone blind. Being able to sense every particle around me for hundreds of thousands of kilometers, to instantly not be able to sense more than a few long strides in front of me.

Attempting to override the old structure's Citadel Ether commands only works when I'm extremely close or touching the old decaying buildings. Even when making contact, I can only control small patches where my limited senses can connect to.

However, soaking in a pool filled with Ether does allow me to drain large amounts of the hot white substance through my skin the longer I soak in it.

In just the first hour submerged, I drain almost a hundred thousand low-quality Ether and get the hang of finding the currents in the sludge to expand my senses. The same feeling I got when mutating my body in Celia's Divine Construct tickles the back of my mind, as I already feel myself adapting to this new environment.

It feels like I finally made progress with my first stage of training, but now I've been thrown into the dark and have to start back at square one again. My Noble Vibrations feel just as dull and uncontrolled as they did the day I walked into the High Orc Tower for the first time.

My self-regeneration skill is being used in full force, using a perk it hasn't had to use in a long time—its passive poison resistance. I'm certain without it, a normal human would have died seconds after touching this darkness.

I too feel more and more fatigued the longer I train here, but the amount of Ether I'm able to farm and the expansion of my range of Noble Vibrations within this sea of sludge motivates me to not look back and not waste a single second...

After my taste of warping my Vibrations to a purpose while building the ascension chamber, Seraphel knew that it would be far better to let me break through to the frequency of a High Noble under far more stress. It is understood that if I can train my body and mind to adapt my Noble Vibrations to get used to such a harsh environment, once I use them without such limiters I'll get far greater end results.

–

After seven full days of going all out, my total low-quality Ether stores near thirty million. My range of perception through this dark sludge has increased by thousands of times, as it feels no different than looking through the crystal-clear ocean back on the human world.

Seraphel's words, "If you can train your body and mind in the remains of the corrupted, then maybe you can survive in the presence of the Royals..." echo in my mind, while the memories of my final day beneath the sea manipulating full city blocks worth of towers at once beneath the grey sludge rush through my thoughts.

–

I began using my suppression technique on the way up out of the grey ocean after 7 days, and have not deactivated it since.

Seraphel says I am well on my way to becoming a High Noble, but I do not feel any different, as I have not been able to release my power yet outside of the suppression beneath this sea of corruption.

As the Ellipsia Citadel comes into view again, I go through my mental notes of what I have to do before I go back to complete the final phase of training.

I must collect the worlds my servants have purchased, check the structural integrity of my Ascension Chamber after the seven days it's been sitting untouched, and lastly, collect a package from Asic and Torvak.

All of this must be done while keeping my Vibrations completely suppressed. If I fail to do so, the Citadel itself may end up in a similar state to the one I've spent the last week training at.

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