Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

[You've entered the challenge!]

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Notifications ring in my mind as I fly forward through the pillar again, clashing my spiked mace against the massive mammoth's tusk that is easily ten times as long as my greater form.

This beast, myself, and Ren on my back have all entered this challenge pillar that has been strategically placed by admins crafting an entertaining show.

Without using any borrowed stats or additional buffs, only using my greater form's strength, the attack that slams into this monster's tusk and keeps us at a standstill again is actually my full power.

There's an immense amount of mana control and pure refined low quality ether still locked behind my seals, but I'm quite impressed by the brute strength of the beast.

'You're almost as strong as a Noble... no wonder those Admins were looking for more of you...' I think to myself while flying backward again, watching the mammoth let out a roar, and being pushed back a few hundred meters as well for a second time.

[4/15 Slots Filled!]

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More notifications ping in my inner ear as streaks of weaker aura fly through the sky around me.

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All of the surrounding 1st Class Lords that were trying to defeat this mammoth before see this challenge checkpoint as an opportunity they can't miss out on.

I feel strong desire and greed in their auras, and believe there must be an ulterior motive to killing this mammoth than just to claim its points. They all seem to have a spark of intelligence in their eyes, so this urge to kill a monster clearly far too strong for them when they could stack points elsewhere spikes my curiosity.

The slots fill all the way up in a matter of seconds.

[15/15 Slots Filled!]

[All Slots filled! The Challenge will begin shortly!]

The white pillar, now surrounded with many strong Lords holding 100–300 points each, fades away, but a large amount of energy is released into the air.

At the pillar's base, the ground turns a solid white coloring, and it pulses outward with extreme speed, covering this entire rocky region in a layer of pure ether commands.

At the biome's borders, it bursts upward as well, trapping all 15 of us in a white cage that connects to the top of the dome with no escape. The ringing in my ears echoes out again.

[5 Minute Challenge Event! Battle Royale!]

[Survive until the end, and claim your prize!][i]

A massive [0] hovers high in the air, about 100 kilometers in the sky in line with where the pillar stood moments ago, and below it, a massive visible 5-minute clock counts down.

I read out the higher detailed descriptions popping up in my mind, but the announcer, showing this feed live to those watching in the arena, outlines exactly what I see.

"A special challenge event has been triggered between the Mammoth and the human! And it looks like even more Lords are joining in!"

Images of each one of these Lords—ranging from lizard creatures, two massive bears, a ten-armed chimera, a bird with bright yellow feathers, and all kinds of other 1st Class monsters even stronger than the five I faced near the [Gift] pillar—appear one after another.

"It's going to be a 5-minute challenge, where none of the Lords that entered can leave this zone! If a Lord is killed inside the time limit, all of their points will be added to the prize pool, and they will be eliminated from the event like a normal kill!"

Another view of the crowded stands zooms by, but I don't have the luxury of enjoying the show like everyone else. I'm in the middle of this fight...

I step upward through the air, avoiding half a dozen incoming attacks from various Lords, and swing my massive greater form's spiked club across my body, landing a direct hit on one of the enormous winged creatures in the sky that looks like an overgrown black beetle.

It takes all of my strength, but I still manage to crack through its outer layer of energy armor, and send it hurtling backward at the brink of death.

To my surprise, one of the other Lords in the flurry sends two blue crescents of water magic its way from another direction, and slices it in half using the weak points I created to finish the kill.

A flash of white light dissolves its corpse in an instant, and a loud ding sounds throughout the dome, changing the [0] above us to a [166].

"Not even ten seconds into this match, and we already have our first kill!" The live feeds move back to the battle, and show a replay of this stolen kill. My gaze meets the enormous humanoid tortoise creature wielding two blue daggers, but my mind is occupied with the announcer's next words.

"It will be a deathmatch for everyone inside, but this doesn't have to end with only one remaining. Whoever is left after the timer hits zero will share the pool of points equally... However, depending on the difficulty of your trials inside this event, an additional unique prize will be granted to each winner of this challenge. Best of luck, fighters! –And do not forget to place your side bets, live odds for this mini challenge are available now!"

I roll my eyes and fly forward through the air, swinging my spiked mace again to slam against the blue tortoise's daggers.

It managed to block my attack, but it's sent flying backward a few kilometers. While I don't feel any backlash, my gaze is focused on the mammoth coming my way again. It lets out the same roar, and its animalistic eyes lock with mine, filled with hot ether and rage, making me believe it doesn't even know this challenge has started, and I'm just another fight in its long life of survival and brutal battles to the death.

This makes me grin wider than I have in a long time up here in the Upper Realm, swinging my spiked ball downward again to clash with the mammoth, creating a shockwave that sends all of the other challengers flying backward from the force.

I let out another laugh, as it feels like I'm finally stretching my arms and legs out after a long nap.

Massive red and maroon auras clash, and explosions of enormous fire bursts come off my spiked ball after every impact, but we're evenly matched.

Streaks of white ether flow from my back, but the same visuals can be seen trailing behind the mammoth's tusks.

The announcer goes wild, zooming in on our every exchange as a battle of greater magnitude than ever expected rages on.

"Another hit! And another! This is the strongest human I've ever seen in my nine thousand years of life! I can't believe it!"

The mammoth's roars carry waves of natural intimidation in them, and one of the humanoid lizard Lords falls from the sky, passing out from the pressure, and is trampled by the mammoth after being sent flying back from one of our exchanges.

The number in the sky updates to a [390], and the announcer's words echo in my ear through the spectate feed again.

"Not even the Emerald Lizard Race's Elite Warriors can withstand the aura of this clash, incredible!"

At the same time, a yellow-feathered bird I saw before this match began swoops down at me while I'm flying backward from the recoil of my last exchange. I swing my ball on a chain faster, and twist through the air to make a direct hit against the bird's glowing white beak.

An ear-piercing squawk is drowned out by the explosive flames, and two dinging sounds in my ear.

[Kill Confirmed!]

[214 points added to Challenge Total!]

The [390] ticks up to [604], and through the clouds of fire, the white tusks of the mammoth come at me before I even reset my footing in the sky.

Even though my physical prowess is suppressed, my mental clarity and calculations are still far superior to what they should be. Deep within my mind, Noble Vibrations are still aiding my perception.

I grin and kick off the air to dodge one of the tusks, and swing down on its head.

My pure soul energy aura clashes with this beast's, but I still can't break through it... There are instinctive ether defenses forming all over its greater form's body, and even now, colliding with the center of its forehead, we're still stuck in a standstill.

I smirk, thinking to myself 'Fine... I'll borrow a little strength.' and pull stats from a few 1st Class Worlds.

If I were to pull 65% from the hundreds of thousands of worlds I have access to, I could kill everything in this entire arena before I blink again... Even activating my Astral Form would be overkill, and show my true strength too early. My generals are still adapting to their environment, I can't fully expose myself until the time is right.

With restraint in mind, mana surges into me as I take about 1/10,000th of the stats and extra mana control I have available to me, and the soul weapon in my grasp glows bright red, and pushes out a menacing aura.

So much so, that the mammoth's feet are crushed into the ground below us momentarily, cracking the thick crust of this rocky biome...

However, that's not the only thing that cracks. I feel this massive amount of aura breaking limits of this Basic Class Soul Weapon, and small fractures form in its surface.

It has self-healing commands already pre-purchased, but they can't be activated mid-swing...

My smile grows even more, and I borrow even less stats, letting my mana recede back into my greater form and out of the attack.

However, I stay firmly in place while the mammoth takes the full recoil.

Many of the 1st Class Lords that withstood the pressure before see this as a perfect time to strike when the beast is weakened, but they're sorely mistaken...

Three 1st Class Lords are caught up in the monster's rage as it twists its head around, shattering their entire avatars with a single strike from its tusks.

I fly upward and away from the raging beast, activating the self-healing commands on this soul weapon, and watching the prize pool soar up to [1,198].

Replays of my first successful landed hit on the mammoth's head are shown on the live screens, and the brutal instant kills afterward are shown too.

However, as the glowing light white heals the cracks all over this spiked mace, the Demonic Servant Announcer zooms in on me floating in the air much further than he ever has in the past before...

So far in, that the imagery of Ren asleep on my back is visible.

My sharp eyes look directly at the portion of the dome that is recording me, then dive back down toward the mammoth, ready to take it out for good now that I know my weapon's limits.