Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

I finish shaking the Lich King's hand and speak again.

"So where do we begin?"

The jet-black skeletal figure ponders for a moment, staring off into the direction of the black abyss on the horizon.

"In my first life, it took me many decades to compress my core..."

He turns back to me.

"I had a teacher, but on that world, Divine Energy was far more prevalent than it is here..."

He puts his arms up in the air like he's feeling it.

"There is hardly enough red threads in this entire desert to awaken a single core. This is a dry planet far from the source... However, if there are beings like the sun god in this world, that means there are most likely more who have grown by other means than natural energy in the atmosphere. We left that strange construct, and you seemed to have farmed threads from it. The only way you might awaken a True Core is if you have enough yellow fragments to do so."

I nod, opening up a spatial magic portal above my hand to let a single yellow gem float out above my hand.

The Lich's gaze tightens, then he responds with a sigh.

"As I said before, the only technique I know is one that takes decades to complete. Much longer if resources are limited. As you know, with a fully saturated yellow core, every fragment you consume now will give you a temporary surge, but the excess threads will leave your body and expand into the atmosphere afterward."

He pauses, then puts his hands up in the air to create a bowl shape.

"What I'm trying to say is, True Cores form over time as tens of thousands of hours training and cultivating energy are stacked on top of each other."

Inside his hands, I see the [Concealment Attribute] of his cloak and pendant activating, and a large amount of mana being channeled through his arms into his hands.

With my enhanced perception, I can easily tell this is all a facade, but I watch the illusional recreation of yellow threads forming a core above his head for all to see.

It is no more than a hologram, but he's giving me a visual representation of what he's saying so I can follow along much easier.

The threads all form together to show a slowly rotating yellow core above his hands.

"This here is what your core looks like now. Fully saturated with enough yellow divine threads to stay stable and contained; enhancing all of your physical capabilities by rooting yourself in reality to a staggering degree."

The shade of the core changes from yellow to red.

"While real Divine Energy is merely the manifestation of the force our complex minds put out into this universe, our rational thoughts must see it in its most raw and simple state. This is where it all begins: the red core."

His words make me think very carefully. Ember said something similar to it in the past, stating that this energy is split in a very rudimentary way for mortals to comprehend.

Now, with the Lich King stating the same thing, I can't tell if it makes more sense to me or even less...

He continues before it fully sinks in.

"Awakening your red core allows you to exert dominance on the reality around you with roughly two to five times as much weight. It is mostly manifested to increase the user's speed, strength, perception, and basic movements. It is the perfect introduction stage into the world of the divine."

I nod along while the hovering gem in the Lich King's hand shifts to orange.

"The second stage, the orange core, is a stage that uses all of the perks of the red core and applies them to the being themselves. During this awakening, the user becomes far more in tune with their body and begins to comprehend the boundaries between self and the universe around them. It is possible to enhance one's defenses with this breakthrough an additional five to seven times above the red core stage. Basic movements and physical capacities may be increased two to three times again during this breakthrough."

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While I watch the Lich King shift the orange core to yellow, I remember back to when I learned to create what felt like an unbreakable barrier around my body while awakening this orange core to take on the flocks of insects within the construct.

The core in the Lich King's hands glows yellow.

"In the state you've reached now, the yellow core, what some call the first step toward immortality, is the manifestation of mind, body, and soul all working in unison. Your perception, speed, defense, attack, energy control, and versatility with this awakening have all increased by at least tenfold above the capabilities of an orange core. You see and interact with the world far differently than others; beings that reach the stage of a yellow core are said to be conquerors, rulers of mortals."

I smile at his words as the yellow core reflects in my eyes.

Then, the manifestations of countless yellow threads start to come out of the Lich King's fingers and circle around the core as it speeds up its rotation.

It looks as if more energy is being pushed into the core, over and over again.

Every time a large amount is sucked in, the core pulses bright, giving off the illusion of strength, then ejecting the excess yellow threads while spinning even faster.

Over and over, more threads channel into the core, charging it up, and the excess is ejected.

It looks exactly like what I was doing while air-stepping high into the green fog of the serpent in the construct.

I used many yellow fragments to supercharge my core temporarily, but after a few seconds passed, the excess energy that couldn't stay contained in my fully saturated core was expelled.

The Lich King speaks again while the energy display continues.

"Yellow core awakened are the strongest tier of lifeforms a physical planet can hold. It's said that a yellow core's lifespan can reach up to 300 years if timed out correctly, and their battle scars don't run too deep."

He pauses, and we both watch the core spin faster and faster, doing energy cycles in and out many times a second now to show what it looks like in the passing of time.

"Over this lifetime, the yellow core will fight enemies in high-density divine zones, naturally soaking up the universal energy around them; or even better, consuming the cores of the armies they defeat."

The core spins faster and faster, making me use my full perception to witness the energy being consumed and ejected every few milliseconds. Small fractions of energy are left behind inside the core each time, even though over 99% of it is ejected back into the atmosphere.

While it is difficult to see this progress when looking at the energy ripples one by one, the difference becomes noticeable after hundreds, even thousands of events go by.

At first, the core grows in size, bit by bit as energy is left behind.

Thousands of revolutions go by, and one millimeter at a time, the core grows over three times its original size. This is when the Lich King speaks again.

"As you can see, after decades, possibly centuries of war and cultivation, a yellow core will retain small amounts of energy from all of the yellow threads that have made their way through it. Every time the yellow core is used, it becomes stronger, cementing the user's presence in the universe with more gravity after every monumental battle."

The enormous yellow core continues to grow, glowing bright above the Lich King's head, while I stare at it with wide eyes, and my teammates watch with awe-inspired expressions as well.

"The peak size of a yellow core like this can increase the weight on reality of the user by up to 20 times that of a newly awakened yellow core. From what I could see, the Sun God's core is well on its way to a state similar to this. You believe his divine energy is thicker and stronger than your own by ten times, it is because of his decades of experience, and residue from cultivating for so long."

There's a pause as the energy glows brighter and brighter, collecting yellow strands from the atmosphere and ejecting the excess faster than I can even perceive until all of a sudden it stops...

The core reaches what appears to be its critical mass, and it stops taking in new energy.

In the blink of an eye, I watch all of the manifestations of divine threads tug on each other, seemingly tightening into a circular knot.

It compresses, making its size shrink by almost a quarter instantly, then continues spinning slowly again while the threads squeeze and tug on each other more and more.

Seconds pass, then it happens again, the core compresses in on itself, shrinking to become half its size, creating a much more noticeable visual change than before.

It shines far brighter, and seeing the separation between threads gets harder and harder to see, like the threads are becoming a liquid or possibly even a solid orb; it's hard to tell.

However, it doesn't stop there. The threads squeeze and pull on each other more and more, compressing itself in half again, now leaving a core that shines even brighter but is even smaller than the initial core that we started with.

My eyes are glued to the orb as it tightens and shrinks down on itself two more times, seemingly crushing itself beneath its own weight until it stops at the size of a small marble glowing so bright I want to cover my eyes.

It floats above the Lich King's hands and just looks like a solid yellow ball of light. It is spinning so fast, with no imperfections, so it doesn't even look like it's turning in circles at all.

The Lich King then dismisses the incredible illusions in the air, and the light show fades away, leaving us out in the hot sunny desert as he continues his speech.

"As you can see, after enough time has passed, the True Core will compress under its our gravity and awaken itself. Once your energy is consolidated and pure, everyone's progression from this point is vastly different. Even now, I cannot predict the strength or unique properties your True Core will grant you."

I'm left speechless for a moment, quite blown away by the Lich King's presentation, but now I see the simplicity of it all.

While time seems to be the major factor that would streamline this process, the real goal here is to keep as many yellow divine threads in my core as possible.

The new possibilities and training methods to use all speed through my mind, and I respond with a grin.

"Perfect. Let's get to work then."

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