Kae
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Dungeon Diver CH820
🕑 Added 2025-03-27 23:00:06 +0000 UTCI watch all of the Lords in my direct line of sight walk and run forward into the dome without hesitating at all.
The hologram of the grinning Demonic Servant fades away as well, leaving me in silence, staring at a shimmering mirror with an unconscious elf on my back.
After a few seconds pass, a timer shows up in my mind above the two new available buttons on this avatar shell, and it is counting down from 1 hour.
“Well… we better get to it, I guess…” I whisper, hoping Ren hears me soon, and walking forward, passing through the barrier.
Instantly, I feel the sensation of an easily malleable wall turn into an indestructible prison behind me, as this dome is far stronger than the blackzones I’m used to in the wilderness.
Though, it’s bright green behind me instead of black. The sky above is the same color, as the entire inside of the dome is green.
My feet crunch on the hard ground below me, that appears to be covered in smooth pebbles and stones, like the bottom of a dried riverbed.
Small shrubbery grows out of it as I look around, with red bushes, and green and blue trees with stubby branches, not growing much higher than 4 or 5 meters tall at most.
There isn’t much elevation change either. When I look around, it’s like we’re on a flatland for hundreds of kilometers.
Though, my senses are still heightened from boosting my perception on the white ring, so I do see a thick jungle-like biome about 300 kilometers away. With it, I watch dozens of Lords to my left and right all running forward into this simulated battlefield.
Some toward each other, and some running off on their own.
I even see pillars of white light in the distance, with small notifications popping up in my mind pointing to them with arrows on a tiny minimap.
[Duel][Nearest 961km]
[Shop][Nearest 1120km]
[Gift][Nearest 1600km]
[Challenge][Nearest 1784km]
They all have one of these messages as a descriptor, with all kinds of point rewards, avatar upgrades, or even rare soul weapons available. Though, the more complex descriptions are all blank, as it seems I need to be within range to gain access to this information.
The minimap is loading up my environment just like it did in the Wilderness too.
I run forward, pushing mana and ether into my footsteps in order to move faster.
Many of the other 2nd and 1st Class Lords I see zipping through this dry biome have full access to their ether commands and systems again, and give off impressive auras. Many have already made it into the jungle.
I feel shockwaves of energy rippling through the air, and massive flashes of light in the sky, watching a white-feathered bird and a fiery lizard creature clash with wind and fire above the jungle’s treeline far away. They both have some kind of greater energy form activated, and it really sets the tone for what I’m getting myself into.
Dozens of other blue, green, white, yellow, and purple collisions explode in every part of my vision, throughout this dry zone and within the jungle, destroying kilometers of trees and blasting holes in these smooth rocks.
Hundreds of the strongest monsters and Lords in the green zone of the Upper Realm have begun to fight, and it is quite eye-opening as I continue running forward, watching total chaos break loose.
“And to think this is the warm-up round that no one bothered to show up to and watch…” I murmur while leaving a trail of white ether and mana behind me.
My body feels quite hot, and there’s a light buzzing tone like high pitched bees in my inner ear, as the Noble Vibrations have built up far more, placing pressure on my first seal far greater than two and a half days ago when I first noticed them.
Straining myself to get scans of the Citadel certainly sped things up, but despite this, there is an even more strange sensation taking place on my back.
I didn’t feel it before, and I think it’s because of the fact that our avatar restraints have finally been lifted, but large amounts of the ambient mana and stray ether coming off the commands around us are being siphoned into Ren.
Even the residue coming off my body is getting drained into this elf’s avatar.
A few minutes pass, and many of the battles in the sky come to an end, but many more start again. These next rounds of fights are even more intense, as the weaker Lords all lost, and now the winners are facing others, showing even higher levels of their strength.
I make it within range of the treeline, separating this dry stone biome from the jungle with kilometer-high trees; but the air becomes thick and hot just as I’m about to charge my footsteps with ether and start to fly.
“5th Class humans? Ha! Two free points for the taking!” a loud and deep voice bellows out from beneath the ground.
The rocks start to shake, and a bulge bends upward to reveal a bright bronze horn.
A massive rhinoceros head bursts from below, and a muscular humanoid body with four arms comes out, staring us down from a distance.
It looks like this beast is made of rocks, and the two white crowns of a 2nd Class Lord and bright [4] above its head tells me it’s already been through a few battles in the few short minutes we’ve been in here.
My gaze tracks left and right, spotting multiple deep holes in the ground just like this one, making it known this creature has ambushed other parties in the same manner.
I wave a hand, motioning for it to move.
“I don’t want to fight, I just want to check out those pillars in the distance.”
A laugh comes back from the beast, and an aura grows around him, humming with dense mana, divine threads, and a premium avatar’s ether commands; making the rocks around him turn into liquid using an earth summoning skill.
Spears are created in all four of its hands as it yells again.
“Oh, you have no choice in the matter!” Then throws one of its massive ether-imbued earth spears my way.
I sidestep with a burst of mana under my feet, far more explosive than what I had to use beneath the Citadel in that cell, as this creature really did just try to kill me.
The rock around him continues to flow and cover his body, creating armor and growing him in size to over 50 meters tall, like some kind of greater form is being activated.
I roll my eyes. “I guess I can’t hide forever…”
By the strength of the Vibrations hitting the inner walls of my body, I’m going to have to let them out before the day’s over. This so-called new Noble of the Vermillion Family is going to be revealed in the main event tonight, and that is when everyone will be watching… So, there’s no point in trying to stay within the limitations of this 5th Class human avatar shell.
At this point, I’ve achieved my goal here, and welcome the suspicion of the Demons.
I smirk, letting a hint of my true mana control leak out, then raise a hand in the air, filling it with dense fiery soul energy, not bothering to create the facade of the tens of thousands of basic ether command simulations it would take for a 5th Class human to create such an attack.
Then, let it fly forward at the beast that angrily throws three more spears my way after missing its first.
The flimsy pillars of stone are incinerated on the spot, and a massive gaping hole is left in the chest of this monstrosity’s greater form.
My fireball isn’t even affected, but I wave my hand to let the ball of flames explode before it gets too high in the sky.
Even so, the burst of dark red flames and white ether lights up the sky behind us, and takes out almost a full kilometer of jungle.
The rhinoceros Lord’s eyes are wide open in fear as it falls forward on its face, murmuring, “Im-possible…”
Then fading away in a gentle white wisp of commands.
[Kill Confirmed!]
[Points Awarded: 4]
[Total Points: 5]
The green number above my head counts up quickly to match the notification in my inner ear, and I calmly walk forward through the white mist and leftover mana from this beast’s aura.
Many other strong 1st Class Lords nearby make mental notes of this explosion, as it was no ordinary blast and certainly an enemy to keep their eyes on.
The mist filled with leftover energy turns into a slowly spinning whirlpool, coming my way instead of dispersing outward, though I’m not the one draining it. Ren’s body glows white as it’s entirely absorbed by their small figure, and I feel a small hand tighten around my shoulder for a moment once the air is clear.
I raise an eyebrow and send a mental message, but there is no response still…
Another voice from the admin on the outer ring of the Citadel rings in my inner ear instead.
“Good luck in this first round. I believe a quick victory won’t be a problem…”
I nod, stepping up into the air, and starting to float above the portion of jungle I destroyed with fire. Then, a visual is transmitted into my mind.
It shows this entire dome from an aerial view. There are hundreds of large biomes like the one I’m hovering over, and flashes of light and clashing aura all around it.
Beside this huge aerial view, I see the empty stadium still filling up extremely slowly, and a small moving textbox beside it. There are faces, entry numbers, and total points next to random Lords, and it’s moving fast in real time.
Some of the Lords on this leaderboard already have hundreds of points…
Though, only the top 100 are shown on this live list. I take in as much info as I can before the visuals shift, and the live view of a massive Berserker Giant’s Greater Form battling an enormous purple and black spider’s greater form in the sky is shown—both of them on the top 100 leaderboard.
The Demonic Servant that welcomed us into this event begins giving blow-by-blow commentary on this fight and slows down portions of it to re-run.
The Admin I share a link of loyalty with speaks in my mind again.
“There may not be many people watching now, but already a few million Lords are in these stands. Not to mention every admin has viewing privileges outside the Inner City. If you stay out of entertaining fights you can move on without being seen, but if you wait too long, you’ll be shown to the Citizens here and cause a spectacle… It’s not every day a human is entered into the Arena…”
I grin, and kick off the air to fly further into the jungle toward a few large explosions in the sky.
“Thank you for the heads up, and please do keep this live spectate feed active for me. It will be a great help. I hope you enjoy the show.”
Comments
Tim Scripter
TFTC Kae! Hopefully there will be a couple of decent battles before the main event!
Capplesactus
Tyftc!
