Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

Chapter 708

The glowing [166] flashes by my eyes as the Goblin King's hand, almost the size of my entire body, misses me by less than a meter and grabs its massive battle axe resting in the ground of black stones.

It shimmers with green divine energy and pulses with white Ether once the Lord picks it up and turns my way, yelling again.

"Answer me, human! You're not permitted to be in this Zone! It shouldn't even be possible."

The massive battle axe, with its blade easily twice as tall as myself, is pointed my way as the monster awaits a response.

My gaze moves around to see all the goblins knocked out cold by its aura, and even Ava is struggling to stand to her feet about 20 meters away.

The Goblin King's axe glows brighter, and it yells out again.

"I command you to speak now. A 2nd Class Lord has asked you a question. Why are you here...?"

I stay silent for another full second, remembering how unreasonable this Lord was with Ava. I doubt any words I say will diffuse this mess.

Instead, I focus on summoning Ether around my arms and legs to increase my speed and attack power.

"You know what? You're dead. Whatever Lord sent you here knows the consequences of unauthorized visits. I was in the middle of something here, and you've ruined my fun."

Its speed is impressive.

Just like when it lunged forward to grab its axe before, my eyes can barely catch up; and even as I kick off the ground with Ether to dodge, it's clear even my reflexes aren't enough to deal with raw power.

Before I even move half a meter off the ground, the white axe collides with my chest.

An absurdly loud twang echoes through the Zone, and if not for my purple barrier, that attack would have split any human in my place in two.

All physical divine energy and mana-infused damage has been deflected, but my entire body shines bright with Ether as I'm sent flying backward toward the rock pile I was hiding behind before interfering in this duel.

Ava's worried eyes watching me fly, and the angered Goblin King chasing after me, is all I see as my body is overwhelmed by tingling that turns into pins and needles, soon feeling as though my very essence is being boiled in a sea of Ether.

My whole body vibrates, and it feels as though my very soul is being attacked.

After days' worth of sparring matches, my instincts kick in to begin the healing process, but it is like trying to build a dam brick by brick while an entire river is flowing through.

The boiling sensations all over seem to only get stronger and stronger until my back hits the pile of rocks over a hundred meters away.

The only thing left that I can feel is a small pocket of space in my mind, shielded with a dense subconscious aura, and it is the only reason I'm able to still feel my body and visualize what's going on.

Again, in this moment, I feel as though I'm brought back in time to the mind trial within the tower, and years of experience flow into my mind, remembering how I slowly processed Ether for what seemed to be an eternity.

I gasp for breath once I fall to the ground in front of the rock pile, and a ripple of understanding washes over me from the epicenter of my unaltered mind. It enhances the healing properties of my body on autopilot, but I still feel as though I've only touched the surface of what lies dormant in my consciousness.

The boiling in my body stops getting hotter, but it hasn't begun reversing its effects yet.

Through the pain and confusion, I still raise my hands to face the incoming axe striking my side.

"Not bad! That avatar of yours is still in one piece! No wonder they let a human exile this close to the citadel, you must be a special one!" is all I hear as I'm sent flying in another random direction.

The sensation of my body being filled with boiling Ether returns, and I didn't believe it would be possible, but it is even worse than the first time.

I let out a verbal yell to give myself a false sense of pain relief while slamming into another pile of black stones.

The pocket of guarded mental space pulses again, and as I fall to my face on the black rock ground, losing feeling in my body, I feel my ability to heal and summon Ether increase drastically again.

As the heavy footsteps of the Goblin King approach, I lift my head and begin pushing myself out of the ground, laughing as slight feeling in my appendages begins to return.

The strength gap between us is unfathomably larger than I thought it would be. However, no matter how hard I'm hit, this monster cannot hurt me; this is what is so funny.

Its voice echoes out as I'm hit right in the chest again by its axe with an uppercut swing before I can even fully lift myself off the ground.

I feel another wave of boiling hot Ether coat through me, and I'm sent flying up into the air.

However, before I even begin my descent, another ripple of understanding is violently rattled out of my subconscious mind, and my arms and legs regain feeling even before I hit the ground back in the center of the goblins' mining base.

I'm already on my feet by the time I see the Goblin King's outline and glowing white axe approaching through the green divine fog.

Ava has made her way back to her hammer nearby, and seeing her face again reminds me of something she said to me during our spars after I managed to land a hit on her.

She said that the punch I hit her with was infused with some kind of mental attack.

I was completely unaware of what I was doing then, and as I see the Goblin King ready to swing its axe my way again, I feel as though I still don't fully understand it.

However, there is certainly something unique happening in the depths of my mind every time I'm hit. Even though I can't fully understand it, I can attempt to tap into it.

As the glowing axe comes my way, I don't try to dodge, run, or create a barrier to limit the force of the strike.

I use all of my mental capacity to cover my right fist in Ether and punch against the sharp side of the axe coming down on me.

For a moment, we're stopped in place.

Instead of trying to make the hottest and densest sheet of protection, I focus on the small part of my mind that was unaffected by the prior attacks and channel only that unique kind of Ether to be released through my knuckles and into the axe.

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I feel it stream from my head, down my arm, and through my hand.

Yet, only a tiny amount of this strange compact Ether pushes its way through. I would have been able to push more, but the force of the Goblin King's blow catches up to me, and I'm sent flying across the floor of the mining base.

Dozens of green domes fly by on both sides as my body skids across the hard black rocky ground, and another wave of overwhelming, boiling Ether floods into my being.

As it reaches my mind this time, I feel the barriers hold it back easily, and another outburst of understanding washes over me, but it's far less intense than the last three. The shock of this attack is not as visceral on my senses, and I believe it is not pushing my mind to its limits as before, so I don't get as much understanding back from it.

My summoned Ether begins to attack the foreign energy in my body, and at the same time, I smirk, seeing the Goblin King hesitate to run forward.

My feet dig into the rocky ground, bringing me to a halt, and the 2nd Class Lord yells out in pain.

"W-What have you done to me?!"

There's a thud as it drops its axe, holding both of its hands to its head while letting out an incoherent monstrous roar.

I whisper under my breath as all the hot areas of my body sizzle away back to their natural state, and I feel the used-up Ether dissipate into the atmosphere.

"Looks like it worked..." At the same time, I flood Ether into my feet and palms with a density over ten times as potent as at the start of this battle.

I take a deep breath in and out, as finally, my mind and body are clear again, and I can use the new Ether I've been storing up for the last day with Ava around the borders of this zone.

'Let's see how far I can push it,' I think while running forward at the Goblin King, roaring in agony.

Its vision is blurred, and a searing hot pain just crushed through its mind; however, it is not entirely blind.

As I quickly close the gap between us, its instincts kick in, and it makes use of its clear natural advantage in speed and power.

"A cheap mental attack! I'll make you and this entire mining zone feel that pain a thousand times over while I kill you all! I have been a Lord of these mines in the Hollow District for over 2 thousand years! A cowardly human won't defeat me!"

It lurches forward, now with wide eyes filled with pure rage, grabbing its axe and running my way.

My heartbeat speeds up as we get closer and closer and collide again.

This time, the Goblin King sidesteps, using one of the goblin's huts to kick off of and change its trajectory to hit me in the side.

I'm sent flying back and don't land my hit, but the greed of this Lord takes over, and it follows me in the air even before I land.

A downward two-handed axe slam is what it tries to follow through with, but this is the worst mistake it could have made.

I block the downward momentum with my right hand again.

Even though I'm caught beneath its axe, pinned to the rocky floor upon impact, I manage to send another shockwave of highly condensed Ether through my fist into its soul weapon.

This time, I have nowhere to be propelled to and spend over four times as long in contact with its blade, sending a dangerous surge into its psyche.

While my body is flooded with a wave of Ether filled with hot murderous intent, it does feel like I'm being cooked alive, but no physical damage or mental effects take place.

The 2nd Class Lord, on the other hand, yells out in agony, and I see the last remaining signs of sanity leave his eyes.

It's as if madness is coursing into the monster's mind, and the only escape from it is to shut off all conscious thoughts and submit.

The massive Goblin King's grip on its axe loosens, and it falls forward, right on top of me.

I would move away, but my body is numb again, as the power from its last attack was far greater than any of its previous ones.

I can't move or feel my limbs, and another wave of strange dense energy is being unlocked within me as it seems like a barrier is being melted away to allow me to access more locked-away instinctual knowledge.

Almost half a minute passes before I hear footsteps running my way, and a familiar womanly voice calling my name.

"Jay...? J-Jay, are you here?"

I charge my fists and feet with Ether again and push upward to lift the unconscious Goblin King and his now dormant Soul Weapon off me. I reply, turning to my left to see the hobgoblin with shocked eyes gripping her hammer.

"Yeah... I'm here. But the job isn't done."

My gaze turns to the Lord that just tried to kill both of us, and I walk toward it with a fist glowing hotter and hotter with Ether, but Ava's words call out and stop me in my tracks.

"No! You can't kill him... If a Zone Lord dies, all of their planets will go unclaimed, back into the unascended market. Or, even open and ready for anyone in the Lower Realm to claim them for their own. Sending messages down is extremely pricey; it would cost more than a fully saturated 4th Class world to do so. It... would make our work as Exiles meaningless..."

I look at the Goblin King for a few seconds, remembering him holding Ava by the neck and his ruthless attacks toward me that were each meant to kill.

Then, I look back to her.

"And if I let him live, he'll try to kill you and me again the moment his eyes open... You heard him. The moment he saw the fact that you might be able to pay out your exile contract early, he tried to turn all of your workers against you... It's either I kill him now, or I kill him later when he tries to fight us again."

Ava's hands grasp her hammer tighter out of instinct, and it's clear there's no good outcome to all this, so I speak again.

"I have some strong allies in the Lower Realm... And I don't believe the cost for contacting them will be an issue. We'll save your world one way or another."

Deep down, I have a theory brewing in the back of my mind, but I want to comfort Ava before testing it.

She gulps and just nods. "Right... I can't protect my world if I'm dead... I can find another way."

Then, I grin and walk over to the massive green avatar that lies with eyes wide open and a blank mind.

Before thinking any further, I begin punching its chest with everything I've got.

My divine energy, demon core, and soul energy core's power is locked away behind my purple barrier that is saving me from the pressure.

All I can do is strike this monster with pure Ether.

Ava looks away as I pummel the Goblin King over and over, sending mental attacks deep into his already fractured psyche, breaking it more and more with every punch.

My physical attacks begin causing some damage as well, tearing through the thick, realistic flesh of this monster's avatar and digging deep into its chest to find its Green Divine True Core cycling energy.

As I punch against it, loud twangs and vibrations of rock moving below us echo out, and I can feel my fist creating microfractures and disruptions in the fully unguarded divine core in front of me.

Minutes pass as I massacre this creature, making soup out of its mind and shattering its divine core.

The moment I land the final hit, I watch the green threads that have been cycling in its chest move toward me, clump up around my fist, then cover my arm, and eventually surround my entire body.

Even the Ether within this being starts to flow out of its broken mind and toward me. This isn't stopped by the purple barrier, however; it flows in with ease, making my Ether stores fill with far more than I had before.

At this feeling, I can tell this being is really dead, and the energy that is surrounding me, exerting extreme pressure on my barrier, is all of the excess divine energy that my True Core's absorption ability is trying to consume.

In the past, the energy from beings I've killed floods into my core without the need to be processed. It automatically integrates... The only problem will be opening up my barrier.

Even if I gain more divine threads, I'm still going to be exposed to this immense pressure.

I turn back to Ava, whose eyes are even wider at the sight before her, and I follow her gaze down to the corpse's world token, which now states zero.

In the same moment, I mentally trigger my divine barrier to open, and for all of the dense energy around me to force itself in.

I feel an overwhelming burst of both satisfying new power entering my core and also the weight of the green clouds seeping into me again, tearing through my flesh and body instantly, forcing me to fall to my knees.

However, I catch a glimpse of my own palm and see [167] in bright green text as a stream of notifications ring in my ears, two of which float to the forefront of my mind.

___________

[Congratulations! Rising Emperor's Domain Milestone Reached!]

[167/5 Worlds Claimed]

[New Perk Unlocked: World Collector]

Info:

All Generals may now borrow an additional 1% of stats.

Additional one time daily use Permanent Buffs for all links of loyalty have been granted [i].

The Rising Emperor may now borrow an additional 5% of all Base Stat Points and Mana Control efficiency from all subordinates under the allegiance of the Rising Emperor.

The caster may only borrow or share exclusively; both actions cannot be performed simultaneously.

Members affected by this perk are not required to be within range of the Rising Emperor's Domain.

This buff stacks with the [World Domination] perk, [Imperial Reach] perk, [Expansion] perk, [Dominance] perk, [Authority] perk, [Power Holder] perk, and [Ruler's Gaze] perk if used simultaneously.

___________

[Congratulations! Rising Emperor's Domain Milestone Reached!]

[167/100 Worlds Claimed]

[New Perk Unlocked: Ruler of Worlds]

Info:

[World Wide Connectivity System Interface][i] Update! All Worlds under the Rising Emperor's rule may now access additional perks.

All Lords that pledge loyalty to the Rising Emperor will become Co-Owners of all worlds under their control. The Rising Emperor has superiority over the base stats of their citizens.

The Rising Emperor may now borrow an additional 5% of all Base Stat Points and Mana Control efficiency from all subordinates under the allegiance of the Rising Emperor.

The caster may only borrow or share exclusively; both actions cannot be performed simultaneously.

Members affected by this perk are not required to be within range of the Rising Emperor's Domain.

This buff stacks with the [World Collector] perk, [World Domination] perk, [Imperial Reach] perk, [Expansion] perk, [Dominance] perk, [Authority] perk, [Power Holder] perk, and [Ruler's Gaze] perk if used simultaneously.