Kae
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Dungeon Diver CH802
🕑 Added 2025-03-09 23:00:06 +0000 UTC“Oh, we don’t need much. Just sightseeing before we head back out into the Wilderness,” Ava replies, eyeing the back of the room labeled [Premium Dining Lounge].
The sales specialist picks up on her eye movements and turns to the sectioned-off area.
“In that case, if you’re not looking to buy or sell any specific gear, may I suggest you relax in our dining lounge? For those who miss the taste and experience of eating food, we have many options for all races and documented cultures. Many come with temporary buffs to aid you when you leave the safe zone—”
“Sure, we’ll check it out.” Ava shrugs and walks forward. Ren follows behind her, but I’m far more interested in the other side of the back wall.
“I’ll catch up with you. Order me whatever looks good.”
Then, I diverge paths with them as they follow the specialist toward the lounge, and I walk over to the training rooms labeled [Arena] in my vision. Tons of time slots are available, as well as Lords looking to spar or work on very specific fighting styles, or Lords with unique techniques.
There are also scheduled duels throughout the day to settle disputes, and a description of the rules tells me that it works very similarly to the rooms in Ellipsia.
Two sides can set wagers and custom rules for each match.
When I stop walking forward and stand in front of the translucent ether shielding of the bottom floor, I see two 3rd Class wolfmen sparring. One is on all fours, using its claws and a body-hardening technique to turn its hands into weapons, while the other fights with a long soul sword and nothing else.
A lizardman is watching with sharp yellow eyes next to me, looking my way but ignoring me when he realizes I’m just a 5th Class human, here to observe the match and not fight myself.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Ava and Ren disappear into the lounge area, and another loud clash from the match in front of us brings my attention back to the fight.
Both are evenly matched, but the wolf on all fours is relying too heavily on its animalistic instincts and is becoming angrier with every missed attack. The sword wielder is calm, clearly much older and more experienced in battle, and waits for the right moments to land hits on the other fighter’s arms and legs.
A few more exchanges pass before the weaponless wolfman breaks out of its usual patterns and tries going in for the kill impatiently.
The swordsman’s eyes stay sharp, and he reacts to this moment just like all their past exchanges, striking with the most efficient shot—straight for the chest.
However, upon impact, the beastly wolfman does not get skewered. Instead, a bright ether array surrounds his whole body, like the protection commands I felt activate while walking through the streets outside.
The sword strike that would have ended the match is blocked, but the entire room changes color to a red glow, followed by popup windows awarding the swordsman points toward a leaderboard they’ve been keeping track of even before I arrived.
Both fighters relax for a moment and start talking to each other like old friends while a timer counts down and they rest up for a new match to start in a few minutes.
––
After successfully making small changes to Xaden and Togi’s avatars without being caught, my confidence in doing something similar again has risen, and my curiosity about some of the system messages I see is too great not to at least give it a try.
I place a hand against the glass-like barrier and inject small amounts of invisible ether commands into the arena construct.
After testing this multiple times by touching Ren on the shoulder to initiate telepathy, and experiencing no adverse reaction in the Adventurer’s Hub, I’m certain there is no automatic protocol advanced enough to track my movements.
A surge of information rushes into my consciousness as the blueprints of this entire building materialize in my mind.
Before my heart can even beat again, the imagery of two more buildings in the center of the town appears in my mind, then countless houses all the way out to the border of the safe zone.
I can see thin strands of white ether connecting every avatar here into an intricate system, and my vision only zooms out more the longer I dive in. I don’t see the Wilderness itself, but more connected safe zones come into view.
At first, it’s half a dozen. Then it quickly turns into a hundred. And before I know it, I feel the strands of my ether touching thousands of identical safe zones just like this in a ring around the center of the citadel.
Their exact positions are unknown to me, but I do feel as though if I were less cautious about containing my aura, I could easily take control of every safe zone with the flick of a finger. As these thoughts race through my mind, however, my subconscious follows more random strands and finds that some connections lead upward—to the edge of this dome-shaped construct.
My only guess is that they lead to the so-called admins, but I decide to cut off my search for them, as I feel like invading the minds of 1st Class Demonic Servants is a quick way to be discovered if I’m not completely in control of my ether commands. If I was closer to the targets I’d try it, but being hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from a few admins, I don’t want to test my luck yet.
Additionally, with three self-induced seals holding back a massive amount of my power, I decide I’m content with my findings and draw my tendrils of energy back to now only focus on the one arena room in front of me.
The match is about to begin again, but I hear a low and rough voice from my right—the lizardman watching as well.
“It’s dangerous to touch the barrier while the fights are active…”
“Right… Thanks.” I nod and take my hand away, satisfied with the data I’ve collected, and even more confident about using ether commands undercover.
Then, my eyes shift up to the three completely empty crowns above this Lord’s head. Then shift down to the custom soul daggers strapped to his sides, and then look back up at the experienced look in his eyes to ask a question.
“Have you ever turned in a Crown Cycle? I’m quite new to this zone, still trying to figure out how things work.”
He nods, showing a few white teeth. “Of course. Two times, actually. This last one brought me over the edge to receive my High Grade Avatar.”
“Oh—Congrats… What was it like? Inside the lab, and turning in your crowns? I’ve heard it can take a while sometimes…”
I wouldn't normally be interested in conversation with some random Lord, but the only structure that I couldn't see into—the one that stayed like this consistently for every single safe zone—was the Crown Cycle Lab.
There is an extremely dense and complex layer of ether and divine threads on the bottom floor of every lab I gently scanned. It almost felt similar to the time I tried to look through the power plant at the center of Ellipsia.
Even the trackers I placed on the two wolfmen that entered this building have stopped moving and are just standing side by side in the center of the Lab.
The Lord beside me responds. “Inside the Lab—well… it was…”
My confusion only grows when I see the lizardman’s sharp eyes turn dull and lifeless for a moment, giving off a strangely cold presence.
“What were we talking about again?” he spits out, shaking his head as the alertness in his eyes returns.
I take another step back from the translucent wall and look down at my hand as the clash of a sword against hardened claws echoes inside the chamber. I decide to stop prying now.
“Oh, it was nothing. I was just thanking you for telling me to keep my distance from the barrier—”
In the same moment, another exchange between the two fighters loosens the sword from the calm wolfman’s grip, and it hits the barrier right where I was before. The wolfman on all fours wins the match.
The lizardman grunts and turns back toward the fight, lacking a chunk of information from the conversation we just had…
I turn and walk right by him, on my way over to meet back up with Ava and Ren in the lounge, now juggling even more odd theories in my mind.
A specialist greets me at the door and recognizes me immediately as the third member of the party that came in earlier. I nod along and scope out the room, which is filled with large amounts of ambient mana to make the guests feel more energetic. I see mostly horned Rabbit Lords sitting in the elegant red booths and black tables.
Though, my mind is wandering somewhere else, as the trackers on Xaden and Togi’s avatars finally begin to move again—and not in the direction I was expecting.
The two of them slowly move downward, through the thick barrier my scans couldn't penetrate by simple means earlier.
Comments
Erik McPherson
TYFTC 5
Capplesactus
Tftc
Alexander Perez
He could probably figure it all out in a few minutes if he unlocked himself…. He’d totally get caught though
Tim Scripter
TFTC Kae!
