Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power - Chapter 951

Ulgar’s vibrations grow tense, but I don’t sense any fear, only the sense that he is calculating what to do next. He’s deciding whether to fight or avoid them.

He looks far off to our right, then motions for us to follow. “Come on, we’ll go around.”

Our travel path changes drastically, shifting in sharp angles every few minutes as loud caws ring out through the air.

We encounter another four groups of ascended demons, in squads of between thirty and thirty-five. Ulgar does not bother avoiding them and kills every one on the spot, allowing us to soak in their broken glyphs after every shockwave.

Yet, the strange travel path we’re taking cannot be just about avoiding one group of Outer Guards.

“They have multiple search parties surveying the area… They’re definitely looking for something.” comes out of Ulgar’s mouth soon after, confirming my suspicions.

His confidence and careful directional shifts put me at ease too. The main thing I let my mind sink into is absorbing as much information from these ascended demons as I can. After over ten shockwaves in total, I’m not gaining any new critical information, but my understanding grows on a deeper level.

While all of the glyphs mean the same thing on the surface, like a single ancient character describing only one word or simple idea, the patterns of many glyphs together, used in different ways, begin to build on their deeper meanings and dual purposes. It’s like I’m dissecting the language itself and comprehending the fundamentals better.

With Maria tearing open this language in her consciousness as well, we unravel their meanings faster and faster. This takes a large amount of mental energy, as well as pure Celestial Energy cycling to keep our bodies and souls intact. It refines our pools to be more and more pure, slowly converting our Soul Energy Core’s density closer to a higher quality base, one cycle at a time.

This flow state only lasts a little longer before we start seeing trees far off on the horizon. Slowly, the sensation of Primordial Aura watching us and a heavy pressure in the air returns.

Ulgar slows down, pulls out his blades, becoming far more careful, and Maria’s Source Resin sinks back into the protective center of her soul… I feel slightly more vulnerable knowing that if we’re hit by another shockwave right now, her Source Resin won’t glue us back together with as much strength and confidence.

However, when I start to see some of the glyphs on the bark and leaves of the trees we approach, I feel far more comforted.

They don’t seem as awe-inspiring, like they are on an entirely different level.

Now, I can see a large amount of the individual shielding commands in the trunk and automatic ether refinement in its leaves, cycling the stray ether in the air. The slight patterns and movements of the insects and lizards from before make far more sense.

When we make it to the treeline, Ulgar looks around but doesn’t stop moving forward. We keep the same pace and fly inward. I don’t block every aggressive fractured glyph out with my bubble of Primordial Aura. Letting a few through to stimulate my imprints actually feels quite good.

It’s hard to tell if my energy readings have been adjusted after our flight through the flatlands, or if what I’m sensing now is real… but for some reason, the trees in this forest feel like they have weaker wills.

If I were to stare deep into their cores and open up my soul to their complexity, I would be overwhelmed, just like before… but I get a strange sense from the Royal Vibrations in the air, that makes me believe these trees are less rich with vitality. It’s like they’re more concerned with surviving than thriving.

We take it all in as new information and take advantage of the higher potency ether in the air again. Our understanding from the ascended demons starts to fade slightly, but our baseline of stimulation rises as we get a constant light source of information floating through these trees.

The faint aura of the Fiery Mammoth starts to touch the back of my mind. It is only a few small pulses from behind us at an angle, and they fade just as fast as they come.

“He’s letting us know he’s here…” Ulgar remarks as we make a sharp turn around another tree.

We haven’t run into anything living in this patch of trees yet, and it is slightly eerie.

The Black Ogre leading the way slowly floats down to the ground between two massive tree roots, then looks up at the two trees they’re connected to. A gap of about three trillion kilometers spans between them, far closer together than most in this area.

“Here we are. I think I lost the Outer Guards that were sent out on scouting missions, but once we make it through here, it’s going to be almost impossible to avoid them. This is one of the least used entry points into the Demon’s main territory, so we should still be safe until we venture closer to their valued domains.”

As Maria and I touch down and walk forward, another light pulse of rust-colored vibrations tickles the back of my mind. At the same time, a cool white vibration comes in from the sky, and it feels like that griffin is staring at the back of my neck.

Their vibrations are tethered to their Primordial Auras and dense, high-quality ether commands with such precision, just feeling this opens up my mind further to the possibilities of how these energy sources can be used.

We don’t waste any time and put our hands up in the air again.

Streams of refined blue and red energy pour out of our palms and collide with an invisible barrier before us.

It’s even thicker and more complex than the last one we opened up.

The warm, inviting feeling resonates with our souls just like the last barrier, and the one in the Black Ogre’s domain, and I recognize many more glyphs this time. Allowing it to drain over half of our Celestial Energy pools each is not a problem. We do it with smiles on our faces.

We let our Primordial Aura and vibrations seep into the invisible wall and feel a semi-conscious pressure latch onto it, testing our mental strength and intentions before activating the next step.

When our energy is siphoned through the compression arrays, I see far more high-quality ether being synthesized than I thought there would be. It felt like we only had twice as much as last time, but it appears over five times the volume of glyphs is being stimulated. In fact, it doesn’t even have to run through as many arrays as the times before.

If we tried to crack this barrier an hour ago, we wouldn’t have had enough ether or control over our minds to handle it.

It makes the archway opening up in front of our eyes so much more satisfying. Fragments of our consciousnesses and sacrificed energy from our soul are present while trillions of spinning glyphs all act at once. Both of our eyes gloss over as we fall into an overstimulating trance. All of the glyph imprints on our bodies flash bright white for almost a full quarter second.

In this moment of intensity, the archway expands and uses far more energy than what was put in. Many dormant glyphs in the invisible barrier react to this flash of light, and the entire wall opens up from both of its outer edges, three trillion kilometers apart, where it touches the bark of two Primordial Trees.

As I start to get my vision back and we begin walking forward after successfully opening up the barrier, Ulgar lunges forward, leaving a dark and menacing aura behind as he flies right over our heads.

“It’s an ambush! They knew we were coming!” he yells out in a guttural tone, sending two long-range slashes of Primordial Aura packed with high-quality glyphs from his blades.

I blink once, and my gaze tracks to where he’s aimed…

There are six bright white demons in a symmetrical formation on the other side of the barrier.

Their eyes are bright purple, just like their soul weapons, and most shocking of all, the hot purple True Cores spinning in their chests.

Reality bends around them, and not a single one of them is smaller than Ulgar. All of them are over a billion kilometers tall in their current energy forms.

My vision starts to blur as waves of six different Royal Demons’ vibrations hit my psyche.

At the same time, a hot rust-colored fire starts to burn my back and fill my senses from behind.