Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

It turns its entire black heavily armored body faster than I've ever seen any monster move before.

An enormous single white eye with a jet black pupil locks onto me, and its spiked ball on a chain spins around its head a single time before it lunges forward.

A streak of red and white light is left behind, and my Divine Foresight skill begins tracking the many multiplying options I have before me.

Its speed is absurd, and a shockwave of aura is bursting out from its being, but it's already acted and begun to run my way before the aura has even hit me.

Once it does, every bone in my body vibrates with unease. It is the natural intimidation, far stronger than a Demon's. The red mana within its aura triggers a feeling I know very well—it is some kind of berserker skill, enhancing all of its stats.

Knowing what is about to hit me won't do very much, as every option I see in my foresight ends poorly.

I can see the hundreds of links within its chain connected to the thick ball and chain down to the handle in its grip, with a bright [1000] on its world token.

While the number of worlds is one thing to be enamored with, the way every single chain link moves with purpose catches my attention even more. It's as if the soul weapon has many minds of its own.

All of the foresight predictions streaming through my mind recalculate thousands of possibilities per chain movement, quickly forcing me to use more and more mana to predict hundreds of thousands of movements instead of just a fluid and predictable path.

Not to mention, it's closed the gap between us, dozens of kilometers, before I've even realized it's attacked.

I have no possibility of dodging. Within a fraction of a second of entering its zone, I've accepted that this opponent is truly an overwhelming adversary. I have no way of fighting back, nor even time to dodge in this form.

There is no time to do anything else, so I retract my aura entirely, forcefully put up my purple barrier, and brace for impact.

–

A heavy thud makes the entire mountain shake.

The massive spiked ball creates an impact crater over 15 meters deep into the compacted black rock with me beneath it.

An ear-shattering, horrific roar echoes throughout the entire central peak, middle ring, and even the hollow district thousands of kilometers away.

I would be in awe of this monstrous battle cry if my mind and body weren't in a white-out of shock from being hit straight on by a Noble Demonic Beast's attack in its Divine Berserker State.

From a physical standpoint, my body is fine. The mana, divine energy, and demonic energy imbued in the monster's strike are all completely blocked by my protective barrier. Even the force of the blow feels like nothing more than a light tap.

The shockwave of physical and mental ether that enters my being, on the other hand, is far more dangerous.

It is so intense that for a fraction of a second, all of my internal functions shut down from shock. It feels similar to the streaks of pain I felt while punching the Goblin King for the first time, when sharp pins of physical ether attacked my being from the force. But this is happening all over my body, and so many times simultaneously, that I can't even conceptualize where I'm being hit.

It feels like every cell of my body is being attacked a million times over, so my bodily senses just shut down to deal with the overload.

My mind, on the other hand, senses that a similar condensed version of ether—not found in avatars—seeps through my barrier and heads straight for my consciousness.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

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In the past, when ether attempted to seep in this far, it was always stopped by an invisible subconscious force, one that I trained for 900,000 years while in a simulated abyss within the Demon Lord's trial.

Now, I feel these layers of understanding and focus that have been trained being broken through by a much sharper and more refined ether base of knowledge.

While my defenses are far more vast, the Demonic Cyclops's attack is more focused and refined, and for the first time, I feel fragments of a mental attack break through my defenses.

It feels hot, searing pain in my consciousness, slowing down my thought processes against my will and allowing me to comprehend the true vicious nature of the monster before me.

I'm not invincible.

After defeating a Noble Demon, I assumed strolling into a fight against an opponent like this would be even easier.

Now, as I momentarily lose consciousness and am pushed over 15 meters deep into the ground beneath an Exile Guardian that has been overseeing hundreds of millions of drained, dead worlds beneath its feet, I realize what it means to be in the Upper Realm. I'm not just fighting against strong humans on a small 3rd Class World anymore.

I am quite literally at the bottom of the entire realm, and must open my mind even further to the heights one's power can climb if I want to survive.

–

As the shockwave of aura from this Divine Grade Berserker Skill's crimson energy radiates through the Exile Zones, and the hideous roar and shaking mountain follow, a Blue Wyvern at the base of the mountain looks up at the closing access point with the same unchanging, saddened gaze.

It thinks to itself about the many escaped Exiles or illegal miners that wandered onto its privately owned plot of land.

It has never once prematurely killed anyone for wrongdoing in its plot. It always gives the intruders a simple challenge: Kill the Exile Guardian, and the wyverns will be an eternal ally.

However, it has sent thousands of lords to their deaths in this very fashion.

Many 5th, 4th, and 3rd Class escaped slaves try their luck and are usually killed by the Sand Worms before they can even see the top of the peak with their own eyes.

A few 2nd Class fugitives with illegal avatars on the run, trying to steal ether stones from rich plots to pay off debts or prepare extra for a duels, have even taken up this Wyvern's offer.

Some of them are quite rich in worlds, with hundreds themselves, and high-grade avatars that can boost their stats enough to make it past the middle walkways.

However, after 12,000 years, every time that crimson light flashes, the Wyvern's hopes of ever leaving these mines—trapped in its own deal of the forgotten past—dwindle away more and more.

–

Its gaze moves down from the peak and watches a green flash of light zip around the middle of the mountain.

The Wyvern had a sliver of hope that maybe this time would be different, as it has never seen such a powerful buff and rank up improvement before today.

A goblin, only slightly more proficient in natural strength and combat than humans—even if it was born on a 2nd Class world—shouldn't be able to make it up this peak so far.

The strange buff this Goblin Queen is using is making its innate talent increase drastically. On top of that, the strength and amount of mana being exerted shouldn't be possible with a basic-grade avatar like this.

Even a High Grade avatar maxed out to its limit with 100 1st Grade worlds would have trouble giving such unfathomable boosts and strength readings.

The abilities shown here make the Wyvern reminisce about times tens, even hundreds, of thousands of years ago, when monsters weren't all limited by avatars here in the Upper Realm.

A pulse of perception through the whole mountain makes it very clear that this absurd expression of mana is exceeding the natural limits of this avatar's contract, and part of Ava's true being is leaking through, sensing true reality around her.

While the Wyvern has lost hope of escaping its prison today, it is still very intrigued by what it's watching.

More physical ether than usual is leaking out from every one of Ava's strikes as she kills dozens upon dozens of 2nd Class guardians with ease.

The Wyvern loses interest quite quickly. While it recognizes and is intrigued by the one-in-a-million rare talent, it knows this ability has been wasted. Chance is just playing its same mind games with him again. If a rise in power like this were granted to a higher race, like the Blue Ogres or possibly the Berserker Giants, maybe they'd be able to break the chains put on them by the system.

But it is just a lucky goblin. And that human must have stumbled upon an elixir to fast-track his ether senses. The fact that he had an artifact on his finger from one of the higher zones proves it must have found an old inheritance.

The strange travelers are a pair of cruel jokes on this Wyvern's existence. Lower races given gifts to even stand a chance against demonic beasts, just to be faced by brutal reality in the end. No matter how broken the power is, the higher races will always rule.

It sighs and returns its gaze back to the access point that continues to close.

It is a ritual now; every month, it looks up toward the sky where it cannot travel.

–

Then, as the Cyclops atop this peak lifts its massive spiked club, another eerie pulse of light and an aura of overwhelming power erupts from the top of the central peak. It's coming from below the Guardians spiked Soul Weapon underground.

The activation of an Astral Form can be felt as all of the divine energy in the atmosphere quivers and bends to its wielders will.