Kae
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Dungeon Diver CH791
🕑 Added 2025-02-27 00:00:11 +0000 UTCThe ether orb around myself and Ava locks in place, then bursts forward with a steady and extremely fast pace.
It is multiple times faster than the standard fast travel orbs that transport people within the Ellipsia Citadel, yet the travel time is still set to arrive in over eight hours.
In my fully unsealed form, I’ve already sensed around this Citadel for a few hundred thousand kilometers on every side. Plus, I know it takes less than an hour to travel about a million kilometers from the realm transfer point where I first arrived here in the Upper Realm. My training ground with Seraphel was far past this, roughly ten million kilometers away, so my guess is we’re headed a similar distance, or possibly even further.
I turn to Ava as Ellipsia begins to get smaller behind us, speaking through our telepathic link rather than out loud after Ember’s warning.
“Alright. This will be a quick mission. In and out. We blend in like normal lower-class lords looking to trade in some ether for mana in order to send to our home worlds. In reality, we’ll make maps of the Citadel’s inner workings and ether commands. I know what I’m looking for, but I’m not sure how hard it’ll be to find it.”
“Sounds good with me. I won’t use anything more than an average basic avatar a 3rd Class lord would display until you’ve cloaked us from the new Citadel’s surveillance,” she replies.
Then we fly off into the endless green clouds of the Upper Realm.
My mind is half relaxed, and half trying to wrap my brain around this new power that I cannot quite sense.
Thinking back to the data I received from Bri on the exploration of Kelfar, I know where the auras on Abby, Raven, and Arie have originated from. The Wyverns, Berserkers, and Dark Elves had strong members of their races leave those artifacts behind.
Abby’s even being named an inheritance for an entire race…
This triggers the memory of the strange black cube I found in the enormous humanoid statue back on the human world. It too called itself an inheritance… though… as far as I know, there have not been any specific perks that have made themselves known to me.
It has merged with my flame and dark swords to create a soul weapon and become a host for the unique cubic black artifact that was rotating around me, but no new memories or abilities have made themselves known linked with this so-called Amplifier…
This brings me to remember another small piece of information written in Asic’s notes on soul weapons that I gathered for Bri, outlining that only one Amplifier is created for every race.
If that is true, whatever is sleeping dormant in my sword must have a higher purpose than just a tool for battle, though I have yet to figure out what or why.
As Ellipsia disappears from sight behind us, I ask Ava another question to try and piece together more clues about my wandering thoughts.
“You mentioned that you found an inheritance tomb on your home world, right? By chance, do you remember what race it was from? Or even better, a description of what you saw or felt once you accepted it?”
“Sure, I can tell you how it happened,” she replies.
–
As the clouds whiz by our sides, I listen to the story of Ava finding a tomb made of bright white Originator stone with very similar runes and markings on its inside like the one I found.
Her tomb was deep underground and came stocked with large amounts of divine threads and concentrated Qi, as if whatever left it behind knew it was dying or was already dead.
Memories of an entity drifting through the endless stars and falling down to her home world, watching it grow and develop on its own for countless years, are shared with Ava, partially similar to my memories from Atom.
However, all of the visions I received from my inheritance were on the human world, her descriptions sound far more similar to the memories Celia showed me when we met inside her construct.
Though, Ava is unable to confirm or deny if this inheritance comes from the goblin race or something else… She doesn’t even have a soul weapon or physical artifact to prove it. Whatever inheritance it left has combined with her soul.
Many other intricate details of her story are shared, and dozens of times it’s perked up and triggered thoughts and feelings to aid her in making decisions. Paths to take, life-or-death instinctual movements in battles she was never ready for, and of course, her decision to choose the exile zones rather than living a normal life up on the Citadel decades ago.
Though, all these premonitions of the past have sparked from the depths of her mind and would appear randomly, now, she says right now it feels entirely within her control, and she can summon the aura to use it to a certain extent whenever she wishes.
–
At the same time, Pluto and his dragon begin to let more and more of the compressed mana out from the containment case, and squads of hunters from the crimson army take turns dungeon-walking in and farming the higher floors for levels.
Rodrigo sits down at a meeting with many of the old Regional Leaders and the Association heads from large land masses outside of the 8 Great Regions, Dark Continent, and Central City.
They discuss forming new labyrinths in the main capitals of the human world and keeping them level-capped, yet accessible for those within their trusted ranks.
It would not be safe to have more than the Crimson Army running around at level 20,000.
The standard ranking system for the Association will remain in place, keeping large amounts of the population below level 500, just under new management.
–
The fast travel time flies by, and after hearing of all the times Ava’s Instinctual Inheritance was triggered, with in-depth explanations of how it felt and the ripple effect of events that it has caused in many cases, I’m possibly even more confused than before I asked.
With my own divine grade foresight skill, I can understand how complex patterns and energy waves can be analyzed to predict potential outcomes, but some of the scenarios she’s describing sound impossible.
The increase in reflexes for survival situations or the draw toward high-energy substances makes sense, but the part that stumps me are a few of her long-term decisions, especially the ones that had to do with choosing to live in the outer ring of the exile zones.
Predicting events that would have happened before I was even born on the human world, halfway across the galaxy… this doesn't add up, and it’s certainly not making understanding my own inheritance any easier.
–
While I haven’t made any progress on the soul weapon or Noble Vibration front, our interesting exchanges do tell me a lot about Ava’s old life.
However, it comes to an end once ripples of new ether commands start to hit my consciousness.
The presence of an extremely thin and weak surveillance system hits my senses and is paired with a familiar ringing in my ear.
[Level 1 Surveillance Zone Reached: Stated Cargo: World M5-39276550 Lord]
[Analyzing Cargo...]
[Cargo Confirmed!]
[Destination: Grand Citadel Entry Point 021458]
[YES] [NO]
It’s the same sound and style of messaging as what I received the day I was thrust into the Upper Realm from the throne.
However, this time, the barriers and ether commands I’ve created to make myself look like an average Ellipsia Citizen have worked perfectly. I’m not going for a fall into the exile zones below like last time.
I smile while pressing yes and watch Ava do the same as her single 3rd Class home world is scanned and the same entry point destination is selected.
Though, as the text fades, it is strange that I still see no citadel…
It has also only been six hours at most.
The fact that we’ve made it through the first thin bubble of surveillance, about one-tenth the density of the Ellipsia Citadel’s, makes me believe that this is just a very far-out pre-scan protocol, and it is not very strong.
However, it isn’t a theory I’d like to test out right now.
I decide to stay still and silent, staring forward without letting any advanced ether commands or special aura leak out as we fly further into the bubble.
It becomes slightly thicker every few thousand kilometers we pass.
If not for the density of ether in the atmosphere and the strength of the ether commands slowly rising, I would not be able to tell we’re even moving.
All around, there are just more and more green clouds that move off into the ends of my vision. They all look identical, and the ether orb tech doesn’t allow for any external outside movements to be felt.
Though, about an hour later, another ping sounds in my ear.
[Level 2 Surveillance Zone Reached: Stated Cargo: World M5-39276550 Lord]
[Analyzing Cargo...]
[Cargo Confirmed!]
No additional confirmation is necessary, but there is a very heavy shift in ether pressure after this ding.
It’s as though we’ve burst through an invisible wall, and the number of active ether commands around us skyrockets by over one hundred times.
Maps of travel paths and security protocols are everywhere I look, as densely packed as though we’re in the center of Ellipsia.
I bet there is even more than this… as I’m not even using my advanced ether senses, I’m merely using my eyes and attention to the fluctuation of waves in the atmosphere.
[Level 3 Surveillance Zone Reached: Stated Cargo: World M5-39276550 Lord]
[Analyzing Cargo...]
[Cargo Confirmed!]
After another thirty minutes soaring through the denser 2nd level of pathways and commands, we’re scanned a third time and pushed into an even more complex level of security protocols and possible ether orb pathways.
I can see millions of possible paths to move just from where we stand, and every moment we move further inward it gets more and more intense.
So intense, in fact, that without exposing myself and letting my true ether senses leak out, my eyes cannot keep up anymore.
Outside of our fast travel orb, the ether commands become so closely packed together, it just appears like a white translucent gel, too complex to comprehend.
It is equally fascinating and slightly terrifying.
Though, my attention soon leaves my immediate surroundings as a massive structure begins to fill the entirety of my view at the horizon.
At first, it appears as though the sky is turning dark further away, but we are just moving closer to a structure that is too massive to see in its entirety.
I see no towers like the ones we left in Ellipsia, and as I saw in my fractured memories of this Grand Citadel. This looks very different…
All I see is an enormous black wall that becomes easier to visualize the closer we come. Its outer edges fade into view, turning the green sky dark, and eventually my entire vision of the path before me turns pure black. We are still moving forward at the same rate, but it becomes much harder to tell how far away we actually are.
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Erik McPherson
TYFTC Kae
