Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

Chapter 755

Arie's True Core consolidation looks far more natural than the absurd footage Ava received of Abby's just minutes ago.

For starters, the larger yellow orb of light that has hit its critical mass is, in fact, still inside his body.

Though, it appears he is using his 2nd ranked-up buff, along with a large amount of his Concentrated Essence—also known as further refined demonic soul energy—to assist this core collapse.

The six dark arms that manifest out from Arie's back—this is what he used to hold three bows back in the war around the throne and even the war over the Dark Continent in order to defeat one of the Lich King's minions.

However, now, he doesn't hold any weapons.

His physical body sits on the brightly glowing yellow floor, eyes closed in the lotus position. The six palms of his demonic spirit arms all bend inward and phase through his body to wrap around the yellow core.

They have been doing a similar thing for the last few days in order to hold the last excess threads in without the core destabilizing; however, now that it has, with a single inward push from all of the palms, this triggers a True Core Collapse.

Wisps of light purple mist float off of his greater energy form, and the room begins to shake and fracture just like Abby's consolidation.

Ava replies back with her [Minute 10] report and gets a barrage of messages back over the next three minutes with updates on days 49 to 63.

She watches Arie's True Core compression complete quite quickly, and only 5 of the 52 massive walls protecting him from the moon's atmosphere crack. They self-heal in the same way Abby's did.

The following two weeks of footage just show the three True Cored generals working toward saturating their cores.

It appears as though Abby's rate of saturation is far faster than Raven's. Raven is about 90% saturated, while Abby is already close to 80%.

Even after just 15 days with a True Core, Arie's is over 40% saturated as well.

A feat like this would normally take a human years, possibly decades, or even an entire lifetime—even if they had this much divine energy fragments to cultivate on their own. However, a combination of unique physiques and the advanced technology of a 1st Class World Superpower that rules hundreds of strong worlds has given them the tools to make use of their talents.

Of course, being able to pull 4% of the raw strength from trillions of links of loyalty certainly speeds up the healing and adaptation process significantly.

However, even with all these benefits, there is still a slight discrepancy in speed because of natural talent.

Raven has had many more years to build up a base, and while she is among the peak of talent within the human race, the two other True Cores she's cultivating beside are monsters on another level entirely.

At this rate, all three of them should hit full saturation in just a few more weeks.

Ava sends her [Minute 13] Report back in to show that there is still a disruption in the time between realms, and in return, day 64 through 68 footage comes back.

It is more of the same. The prospecting party down on Kelfar has killed off almost two-thirds of the world's Demonic Beasts and collected all of the stray artifacts in dozens of regions around the home base.

However, they've made sure not to cross the perimeter they did before, as the Kings stay relatively close to the throne.

Alveron states that this isn't always the case, and they often move about—the commanders just haven't had a lucky day yet.

Though, Monk's remarks on the daily update state that he believes every day so far has been lucky, as they've recovered over 400 more artifacts and thousands more demonic soul weapons.

–

However, this isn't the footage Ava is focused on.

Notes from Bri about the generals' progression are what she uses this extra few minutes to wonder about.

It's stated that in the past, she witnessed Maria break through to new divine cores faster than the rest. Her mana control is abnormally powerful, and even her natural mana base stat is over double that of normal outliers.

If anyone, she should have been the first to consolidate her True Core.

However, all of the data being sent back to the moon base shows that the density of divine threads in her body is increasing as normal energy consolidation would predict.

Large amounts of the divine energy that should be staying in her core are missing.

Not missing as one would expect—where the energy would cycle out and be absorbed by the moon base—but missing, as though the energy itself is disappearing.

All of the attempts at zooming in or analyzing this strange phenomenon result in more corrupted footage and more missing divine energy.

Alveron holds the master files but has not shared them with Bri. However, the empty silver armor used to communicate with the yellow slug has only replied with a simple message:

"I wouldn't worry about that one. She is not behind... I believe it is quite the opposite. I've had to re-stock that base's divine energy stores four times already. None of the other generals even managed to run through one."

–

No one knows what to do with this knowledge, nor do they want to send any unnecessary telepathy transmissions, as they might mess up a delicate process requiring concentration.

So, everyone continues their tasks as usual and trusts that Maria knows what she is doing.

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A [Minute 14] update is sent, and another five days go by, but the updates that come back are very eventful.

[Day 69 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Raven Has Reached Full Saturation.

[Day 70 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Prospecting Complications.

[Day 71 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Abby Has Reached Full Saturation... Kind of?

[Day 72 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Prospectors Return.

[Day 73 Update] [Briana]: [Hologram Attached] A Plan For Conquering Kelfar.

Just by the titles alone, before Ava can watch everything that comes back, her heart rate already begins to increase.

The first is a live feed of Raven's True Core growing to its saturation point.

While divine threads can still flow in and out of it from the environment—negligible amounts of threads stay left behind—the majority flow through like water.

Her hazel eyes open, and she stands up from the center of her cultivation room and smiles while pulling out her silver blades, activating her greater battle form, and pulling a full 4% of stats to release the most powerful gravity-bending aura she can.

Over the next few seconds, she performs a few sword swings and movements as if she's testing out her new strength and the amount of will she's able to produce on the environment around her.

Then, she nods and lets her swords fall back into her storage, releasing her buffs and overwhelming pressure.

With a smile, she looks up at where the surveillance systems have been watching all this time and speaks aloud.

"Mission complete, and with plenty of time to spare, it seems."

She takes a teleport crystal out from her storage and crushes it, leaving the moon base that uses the leftover ambient divine energy inside to self-repair the 18 layers of walls she's fractured.

–

Visuals of Bri bringing Raven down into her bunker and the two of them watching the commanders down on the Demonic World come in next.

It consists of many hours tracking and waiting for the Kings to migrate so they can prospect new areas of untouched Demonic land closer and closer to the throne; however, at the pace they're making, it doesn't seem likely they will make it without confronting the problem head on.

Raven points to a hologram of the entire world that Bri has created and marked with red Xs to show where artifacts have been dug up, and a glowing yellow portion on the globe's top consisting of about 30% of its surface area around the throne that is untouched land.

"I bet if I went down there and helped, we could make some more progress..."

Very blurry visuals of satellite footage from the moons show a massive humanoid monster wielding blades and another holding a bow and arrow.

Their exact race is impossible to make out, and even the footage from over two months on the planet from the commanders doesn't have any close-up visuals of these beasts.

Alveron's telepathy comes through into both the women's inner ears.

"I would suggest you do not directly confront the Kings. They're said to be the equivalent strength of Noble Demons. It's for this reason none of the Lower Races can stack up against them. Even if you'd like to just take a look for yourself from a distance, bringing along backup would be wise."

Three of the screens light up on the wall to their side, highlighting the generals.

Alveron's silver armor is not in the room with them, but truthfully, it is just an illusion the slug has created to make those around feel as though it is there with them. The creator of these facilities is able to see and manipulate any part of it all the same, as it is many solar systems away for its own convenience and protection.

–

Just a little over a day later, Abby reaches a similar saturation point.

However, instead of reaching the point where divine threads flow through her like a peaceful stream of water like Raven achieved, a shimmering green layer of her soul energy forms around her body.

Just like when her True Core was collapsing and it expanded to levels that shouldn't be physically possible, the same is happening now but with her entire body.

All of the data readings coming back show that her body is in a normal state and has reached a saturation point, but the illusion of a second body is expanding around her as she continues to cultivate the excess yellow threads circulating around the room.

Upon reaching this point, her full concentration is not necessary any longer, and the healer opens her eyes while sending a telepathy message to Bri.

The moment they connect, she pairs her with Raven as well, and Abby's voice echoes through.

"I've reached the Saturation point... Kind of..."

Raven replies while staring at the live feed, not making sense of the scene before her.

"What do you mean kind of? The readings are all going haywire over here. What—are you doing?"

Abby smirks.

"It's an aftereffect of my 3rd Ranked-up buff... I doubt any simple mana-based recordings can pick up on what's really happening here. Whatever you're seeing is a bland recreation of the truth."

There's a silence between them for a moment, but Bri jumps in and sends visuals of the state of the planet down below and speaks up.

"So, does that mean you'd be able to help Raven control these Kings? We still have a large amount of the planet left to discover."

Abby scrolls through the feeds in her mind, and in the meantime, Bri continues to speak.

"I think I can create some powerful soul weapons with the artifacts found down on this world... Just like the sword Jay uses, if you're all going to join him in the Upper Realm, you're going to need new gear; don't you think...?"

Still, there is no reply from Abby as she sifts through the visuals of the last two months, including the footage of her and the other generals cultivating inside the chambers.

She whispers under her breath, "Maria... what are you doing...?" squinting and watching her cultivating footage but being left in the dark just like everyone else.

Eventually, her attention is captivated by Monk walking into the Wyvern's skeleton and the fact that he couldn't collect its bones.

She re-watches this recording over ten times, then finally looks up and replies to Bri and Raven.

"Yeah, some new gear would be great. –And, Sure, I'll help confront the Kings. I don't think I'll be in much danger. Though, I'd like to store up more potential energy first. Wake me up when Arie reaches saturation."

Bri smiles and Raven nods. "Great."

Abby closes her eyes again, and the layer of energy around her body ripples and shimmers while more of the ambient divine energy in the room adds to this strange anomaly.

–

Ava watches day 72 and 73 footage fly by quickly as messages are sent down to the commanders, ordering them to return to the moon base.

A massive haul of new artifacts is brought to the storage rooms to be scanned and studied.

Another massive room holds the Soul Weapons and armor from tens of thousands of demonic beasts.

More imagery of Monk and the silver knight walking the aisles of the new artifacts is sent, while Bri begins studying more of the soul weapons brought back to create possible unique crafts for the generals.

The other three commanders, on the other hand, are given permission by Alveron and Bri to take the next few days off.

After months of full-force battles, Fisher and Lydia are both extremely tired but also far more battle-hardened and satisfied with their growth.

They just faced hundreds of the strongest 1st Class saturated True Cored beasts in the entire Lower Realm. So, they take advantage of all of Bri's luxury amenities to congratulate themselves on this achievement.

Luna faces a challenge of her own. As, in one of their most recent excursions to a region closest to the throne while the Kings were veering off their natural hunting grounds, she came across a 1st Class Demonic Beholder.

While it was not at full saturation, nor was it a True Core, this creature was a very strong yellow core, and she convinced Fisher and Lydia to allow her to fight it alone.

With 1% of borrowed stats, she was able to defeat this creature without wielding any divine energy herself, but it was not done in a normal sense.

Luna battled this monster with her mind, and it took many long hours to make it submit and another two whole days to assimilate to her ranked-up buff.

Even now, her body and mind are still unstable from this merge, as yellow divine threads and the concentrated essence of a 1st Class Demonic Beast are circulating around in her small human body that has not even consolidated a red core.

Alveron is especially intrigued by this and brings her to a private room even deeper within this base to help stabilize her and conduct research.

–

The final messages Ava sees in these last 5 days of updates is of Bri, Raven, and Alveron compiling a plan to strategically get past the Kings to make it to the throne once Arie finishes his Core Saturation. The Goblin Queen stands atop a pile of billions of dead worlds in the Exile Zones, counting the days pass while sending back a [Minute 15] update, wondering how long this Realm Wave distortion will last...