Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

The Orb of light holding an amplifier legacy from the Red Hydra in the Blue Zone deep in my Soul Sword has already been digested, but it’s extremely stimulated by the hot aura filling the air.

An invisible pulse of energy floods out from my sword deep in my soul, and it goes back to sleep.

It feels like a wave of cool energy is flooding through my mind, like I’ve just splashed my face into a pool of cold water. I take a sharp breath of air in, and simultaneously, a wave of understanding ripples through the atmosphere.

Millions of stray glyphs inside the waves of rust-colored fire light up in my mind, shining white in the air, until my wave of consciousness flows deep enough into the Primordial Garden to hit the Mammoth straight on.

My mind lights up like fireworks as I see trillions of glyphs and arrays activating all over this monstrous creature’s astral form covering an enormous burning hot Purple True Core. It makes me realize the aura we’re feeling truly wasn’t a vicious attack; it was merely a greeting.

The flashing information in my mind fades, but as Maria takes it in as a second-hand viewer, we begin bouncing ideas and concepts off each other to make this moment of understanding sink in even deeper.

Ulgar’s yells can finally be heard through the roars.

“Vardon. We come in peace. This is in no means an act of war! I come with an offering! An opportunity to gain access to a new domain!”

The waves of heat only grow hotter, but the thick trunk of the tree we’re behind shields the majority of the next blast. The ancient-sounding roars start to make the ground shake, and are even louder than the first one.

“That’s Lord Vardon to you!” an extremely deep and domineering voice echoes back.

Yet, I don’t feel Ulgar backing down. I only see more of his Glyph Imprints activating, and him floating up to eye level with the fiery mammoth while taking out both of his machetes.

I don’t feel any real hostile intent pouring out of him, but these are more arrays active than any of the lizards or insect swarms ever needed.

“We agreed that we would treat each other as equal allies in these final days! Do not try to make the Black Ogres submit to any Lord!”

The Mammoth’s heat grows hotter, and I think about retreating in case this goes poorly. I may not be using my full power right now, but I’m still unable to summon High-Quality Ether glyphs of my own. My Primordial Aura and even royal Vibrations may be stronger than both of these monsters before me now, but in the realm of physical attacks… they still have the upper hand.

Maria is running through the same thought process. We already have another tree marked out in our minds we’re about to move to in between the intensities of each wave of fire, but instead of getting hotter… the aura in the air starts to calm down.

Instead of pure rage, the deep voice of this Mammoth begins laughing.

The trembling ground slows, and the rust filling the air recedes.

“What is your proposition, old friend? I haven’t seen you come out this far in a long time. I was worried you grew too weak to look me in the eyes.”

Ulgar slowly puts away his blades, then looks back in our direction.

After a few deep breaths, both of us come floating out from behind the trees. Our mana-based Greater Energy Forms are still activated, making us appear about the same size as the smallest insects in a swarm. Yet, when the rust-colored eyes of this mammoth stare into my soul from afar, I can tell he is looking at us as true threats, and senses the massive bubbles of Primordial Aura that grow almost ten times as large as his own.

I even start watching familiar glyphs activate in his eyes that stimulate patterns all over his dark brown fur and long white curved trunks. It seems to invigorate the massive creature’s body, increasing the depth of his gaze and calming down the flames that still flicker all over his fur.

“Humans… that have not yet gone through the soul sacrifice ritual to save their lifespans,” he grunts out. “So they’re young, and must have just arrived here after the most recent Realm Wave…. Abnormals in this era are so rare I thought they were nothing but a myth.”

Ulgar looks at the Mammoth with a smug look and turns his head deeper into the forest.

“Abnormals that can break us into the Imperial’s Domain without alarms or need for our strongest to donate energy for the barrier crack.”

We stop behind Ulgar a good distance, and the two of them begin conversing about more than just the plan to raid an imperial domain. They speak of names and gibberish about old soldiers in their Domains and the progress of their younger generations.

While slightly annoyed they are wasting time, it is comforting that they really are good allies reconnecting, and we can trust this beast to not accidentally kill us on the spot… at least a little more than a moment ago.

“Fine. I’ll be your backup. And if it is a success, the two abnormals can use the imprint awakening artifact first. But- the rest of the land, we split two ways even if I don’t have to step in,” Vardon grumbles out in a volume I overhear as they finish their agreements.

Ulgar looks up at the sky, but there’s nothing out of the ordinary in the branches overhead.

“It is a fair deal to me, but I spoke with Axel on the way here… he did not give me a definitive answer. I do assume he is listening in, or at least watching.”

“Three ways then,” Vardon looks upward too. “You better caw at me if I’m getting flanked from behind. The last sneak attack I received from those outer guards left a mark for longer than I would have liked.” He grumbles to himself again, but Ulgar smiles and nods back at us.

“Good.”

After a long pause, Vardon gives us one last sharp look, then turns around and walks back toward his Domain deep in the trees. The hot aura does not fade away entirely for almost a full minute before I actually start breathing again.

“That mammoth was nothing like the Elites I fought in the green zone…” I whisper.

It had a similar build, but the fact that it was intelligent enough to speak to us already puts it in a different classification of monster. I can’t tell if it’s the Hydra’s Legacy it is using that made its aura so rich, its Royal Vibrations so strong and radiating, and its fur so full of vitality… but this may be the strongest creature I’ve ever laid my eyes on.

Ulgar smirks and responds, “Really? There are still Mammoth Clans alive down there to this day?”

I nod slowly and tell him the differences, and a bit of disappointment bleeds into his Vibrations that I catch.

“So they’re a later generation that has devolved. It seems they’re still at the peak of the Lower Realms Talent Spectrum, but still nothing like they used to be. Just like that Blue Ogre Clan you mentioned when you saw me for the first time, our races slowly degrade over time, but it doesn’t mean the lesser versions can never evolve. All it would take is extraordinary willpower, and the right legacy, and one can return pretty close to their race’s former glory.”

A glint shines in his grey eyes, then he turns and gives us a hand gesture to follow.

“Anyway, come on. It’s not often Domain leaders meet, if we loiter too long, a wandering outer guard may see us coming. The art of surprise will be another advantage if we can keep it…”

In silence, we follow Ulgar through the Primordial Garden past hundreds more enormous trees, and dozens of insect swarms.

With our mana-based Greater Energy Forms still activated, my perception is increased tens of times, and the fractured glyphs that we soak up after every one of Ulgar’s fights gives me a burst of knowledge like mini enlightenments. Even the aura pouring down from us in the trees tickles our souls in a strange way, making me think deeper and absorb the information of the glyphs covering the bark all around me in greater detail.

The normal forest starts to turn into something a bit different than expected. I see a familiar sight of massive gaping holes in some trees, and craters where roots were.

Occasionally, entire trees are missing, and there is only a ravine in the ground below.

The insect swarms and lizards avoid these open patches of land, but it doesn’t stop us from flying directly over it.

The Divine threads in these areas are actually much denser, and it’s easier to saturate our purple cores, but there is a lack of celestial energy, and the feeling of primordial aura from the trees watching us goes away. It almost feels lonely.

These patches of destruction grow larger and more common.

Eventually, we touch down in a rare patch of thick trees, and Ulgar pulls out both his machetes, pointing them forward.

“This is the first main wall… It doesn’t exactly lead to any specific Imperial Domain… but it does mean we’ll be leaving the main defensive barriers of my allied forces. This Barrier is an automatic domain shield, built by the dryads. It will be about the strength as the ones built by the outer guards’ construction unit. I can open it with my key easily, but you two should give it a try. It will be good practice for the real thing.”

Once I know what I’m looking for, and stare ahead at this empty forest, I realize my eyes are playing tricks on me.

Lines and dots create geometrical connections in the air, and I realize there is an invisible barrier right in front of us I couldn’t see.

Yet, once both Maria and I realize it’s here, and move closer, everything starts to become visible to our eyes slowly and methodically. We both raise our hands again, and a warm stimulating feeling starts to build up around the outside of our souls like we’re being greeted by an old friend.