Kae
patreon
Dungeon Diver CH801
🕑 Added 2025-03-09 00:00:08 +0000 UTC“Black zones? Well… they’re one of two things. The first being an out-of-control beast, usually 2nd or 1st Class, that terrorizes the territory for too long. If that serpent wasn’t taken care of soon, the Eden Forest could have been turned into a Black Zone…”
“Interesting… so what is the second?”
“Well, it's far more rare, but if the admin of a biome goes dark, so do their monitored areas. In both cases, Black Zones result in the total isolation of an entire region. Lords can enter, but nothing is permitted to leave until the threat is neutralized… Or a new Admin claims the zone. Basically, entering one is a death sentence.”
I raise an eyebrow as this comes through my link from Ren, and simultaneously, Ava accepts an offer from a Lizardman for seventy-four more biome maps in the surrounding area. About a dozen of them overlap with the ones from the Ant Lord, but a majority are spread out more evenly, creating a wide circle around the safe zone where we stand now.
Two more of these black zones show on my map, making that six in total.
While Ren’s description of these zones is intriguing, the data I’ve just received on over a hundred unique territories and monsters is equally as interesting.
I have a perfect map pinpointing exactly where I can upgrade a large number of my skills… and there are a handful of monsters I’ve never encountered before, ones that may even have new skills to add to my arsenal.
My grin grows as the room’s excitement dies down.
From what I can tell, most of the additional biome maps being offered are replicas of what this Lizardman just traded.
Plus, Xaden and Togi are eager to use the coupons to get their own upgrades, and Ren is still silent, processing this whole situation with wide eyes.
Ava speaks up and waves to the crowd.
“Alright, show’s over. The rest aren’t selling!” That prompts many in the back to start leaving.
The Lizardman receptionist that confirmed our quest tries to get Ava’s attention again to ask if we’d like any more quests, but she ignores him and sends me a telepathy link to ask what our next moves will be now that we have a clear map of our surroundings for a few thousand kilometers on every side.
While it’s just a tiny fraction of the entire wilderness, it’s a good start.
I send her instructions, take a step back, pulling my hand off Ren’s shoulder, and instead make contact with both of the excited wolfmen’s furry arms.
“I think the next step is to get these two off to the Crown Cycle Lab! Don’t you think?”
As I make contact, I send a burst of my own mana control into their avatars, then Ava takes a step forward and releases a menacing burst of aura and advanced ether commands into the air like she’s preparing for a fight.
“Yes. Let’s go!”
The entire room is caught off guard as a bright white glow surrounds us, and the air pressure shifts. All of the receptionists turn her way, and the cloud of chaos allows me to release my own cloud of mana and ether beneath hers to activate extremely advanced light magic and ether commands, beginning to manipulate the wolfmen’s avatars.
I wouldn’t dare to try this from long range, but under the control of my purple barrier and extensive knowledge of avatars and citadel commands, I’m certain I can do what I need to before anyone in the room catches on, and have it go completely under the radar in the Grand Citadel’s surveillance systems.
Less than a second later, Ava takes a step forward and begins to let her aura simmer down.
At the same time, I release my contact from the wolfmen that follow. However, their avatars now have complex sensory feeds and physical trackers embedded into them.
The five of us walk through the remainder of the crowd that separates, and right out the front door into the street.
None of the aura, or the end of that scene that just played out, managed to ripple out into the street, so the center of town is moving along as usual. Some still whisper about the fact that two crown coupons were just sold, but the hype has already died down.
We easily walk a hundred meters or so around a curved walkway to find the entrance of a black building extremely similar to the adventurer’s hub entrance, just with [Crown Cycle Lab] in large holographic text hovering above the white ether doorway.
There are more messages that pop up, telling me my crowns are not filled, and I’m not eligible to enter. However, Xaden and Togi both walk right through with dazed expressions on their faces and skips in their steps.
Ava just gives them a wave before turning down to Ren. “So how long do these usually take?”
“It’s… usually pretty random. Could be a few hours, but sometimes it’s days. Depends on which admins are able to take requests.” The white eyes of this elf lord look up to the five full crowns floating above their head. “It may seem like a common thing, but filling your crowns is not an easy feat. The closer you are to filling all of them, the harder it gets. Many Lords never even manage to complete a full cycle in their life. There’s a good reason everyone went crazy over your coupons…”
I shrug and turn to the last higher-tech building in the center of this small town that has two entry points, one labeled [Trade Center] and another [Arena].
“I take it you’re not going to use your coupon either? We might as well explore for the time being…”
“We?” Ren replies.
“What? I assumed we were teaming up for a while…” I place a hand on their shoulder again and use telepathy to finish my sentence. “I am kind of the reason your old party leader is dead, and I assume you’re not the type to travel solo in order to conceal your real strength.”
The Lord’s eyebrows raise. “Well— I’d be happy to, I just wasn’t sure if you wanted me to come along.”
I take my hand off and speak out loud while walking toward this last building.
“We’re new here. A guide would be quite helpful… there’s a lot of things about this place I still have to learn.”
—
The three of us walk around the center ring of the town, past a few dozen more sets of wandering eyes before walking through the white ether barrier door of this final building.
Though, when we enter, I get a barrage of messages, even greater than the spam of quest boards all over the adventurers hub.
This place looks a lot more spacious, and there are even more Lords mingling on the sides of the room.
Instead of having receptionists at the back, there seem to be trading specialists standing by at over thirty tables lining the room. They are mostly all horned Rabbit Lords, wearing very formal avatar armor and assisting trades for guests.
The majority of them are Lizardmen, with the occasional Orc Lord in the crowd. Now that I can see the surrounding biomes in my mind, I can see that there are a few Orc environments to the west, and their presence makes more sense. Ranging from 5th to 3rd Class, there are no clear Class differences like in the adventurers hub, where mostly only strong Lords stayed.
Though, I do notice there isn’t a single wolfman in this center room. I do spot some near the back, behind a semi-translucent ether command barrier, using two of the facilities available here at the Trade Center.
One of the facilities labeled [Arena] stacks up as high as the tall ceiling, revealing three full floors of reinforced dueling rooms. Though the Lords inside don’t appear to be trying to kill each other, this just looks like a safe space for training or sparring.
Then, my eyes turn to a second small corner at the other side of the room’s back wall, labeled [Premium Dining Lounge].
So many notifications rush into my vision, offering to sell dead soul weapon shells, trade packets of ether for mana, provide information on wild beast attack patterns, biome maps— and about 75% of the spammed messages I get are about buying and selling avatar achievement buffs.
Though, I push all of the messages aside and only really look at the biome maps for sale.
Many of the maps extremely close to this safe zone sell for 1-5 ether each, depending on how well scanned they are.
Though, the further out the zones are, the more they go for, some individual plots a few dozen biomes away selling for over 100 ether each.
It’s no surprise that I already have perfect copies of all of them, as it seems that Lizardman who traded for Ava’s coupon bought up most of the rare biomes to bulk up his trading power. It worked well, and he even had a good amount that aren’t on the market here.
I find that almost none of the biomes sold by the Ant Lord are available here, they all seem to be unique copies from that Lord’s personal journey.
As we walk further in, a horned rabbit trading specialist smiles as his ears flop to the sides of his head while looking up at Ava.
“Welcome to the Trade Center. I haven’t seen your party here yet, you all must not be locals. Welcome to our safezone. Is there anything in particular you’re looking for?”
Comments
Erik McPherson
TYFTC Kae
Tim Scripter
TFTC Kae!
Scott Frederiksen
Creating a skill out under all this scrutiny would probably not be a great idea until he has a better idea of what's going on and how to circumvent it. I'm sure that'll come but he is definitely going to be building up his own skill base and levels sooner than later. 🔥🔥🔥
sam colby
Why isn't he just mass collecting skill orbs and make super soldiers haha
