Four hours pass.
Bri exits the Crimson City Labyrinth after leaving a third containment case and a very detailed plan behind.
Pluto stares at the place where Bri has teleported away and whispers under his breath while replaying the scene in his mind from two weeks ago—of a human killing a Noble demon, a feat impossible for any sane demon to comprehend.
"Well... it seems we'll technically be receiving an invite to the Vermillion Family after all. This was not how I expected things to go when I came to this world..."
–
Back in central headquarters, in the city above the mountain that is no longer burning with divine flames, all of the generals leave their cultivation chambers in order to join up with the others waiting.
In a small waiting room, nine of the most powerful humans, strength- and influence-wise, stand together in a circle.
Bri greets the four generals first, then looks to Monk, Luna, Fisher, and Lydia, who have shown up to partake in the second part of the deal that has granted them all access to the planet Kelfar in the first place.
The craftswoman has been beyond busy these last few days, but a satisfied expression can be felt behind her eyes as it's clear that everything has finally reached the final step.
"So, before we leave... there are a few changes, rules, and interesting details you must know..."
While handing out teleport crystals to each of them, Bri explains what she has heard from Raven just hours ago, meaning they have more time than expected to get things done; but she also reveals the state of the world she's bringing them to.
The generals are satisfied, as it is only natural that more advanced civilizations have better technology, and they are happy to use these new connections to get ahead.
Her gaze stays on the four here that aren't generals, and they are a bit more suspicious. Well, other than Monk, whose eyes are practically sparkling with excitement to travel to another world.
"While they work on breaking through, your job is to bring as many rare artifacts back to our main base as possible... It's not going to be as easy as I've explained things to be. You'll... see what I mean..."
After a few back-and-forth questions and answers, the nine of them decide to crush their teleport crystals, as Bri is confident they'll be more informed once they see where they're going.
–
A flash of white light leaves the room empty.
Rodrigo, in a room above them, takes control of Bri's position as the Association's Leader while they're gone, and the Rising Emperor's body doubles continue giving instructions to the Crimson Army as if nothing has happened, making this mission a secret to the world.
–
Once the flash of white light ceases and the nine reappear in a whole new facility, what they see when they look up is not at all what was expected...
They all stand on top of a large teleport platform, with a thick translucent mana dome surrounding them to keep the elements of the atmosphere out.
However, above, there is no bright blue sky with clouds.
There isn't even a starry night sky of the vast universe.
Instead, the visual of a massive dark black and purple planet fills the majority of their vision.
Given the information provided, this First-Class Demonic world is seven times larger than the human world they just left. However, looking at it from the moon they reside on now, its size seems incomparable to anything these humans have ever seen...
Deep seas of demonic energy cover its surface, swirling with a vicious nature. Tints of white and yellow light burst and dim within the dangerous ocean like fireflies blinking on and off thousands of times a second across the enormous landscape.
Even from here, faint shockwaves of true-cored demonic beasts battling down below hit the generals' senses.
Upon arrival, everyone here expanded their auras as far as they could sense, and not a single person could even wrap their entire mind around the single moon they're standing on now.
It is a similar size to the human world...
Looking left and right, four more moons of similar sizes all rotate around Kelfar, the strongest First-Class Demonic World within Alveron's possession.
One of the oldest worlds it has, and one that has never been fully explored...
A streak of bright yellow light, more intense than any of the other smaller explosions before, appears on the world's surface, and it zips through the demonic clouds, parting them and carving up the dense black surface of the world.
The faint outline of an arrow can be seen, but it moves so fast and gives off so much radiation that it would be missed with a single blink.
Though, the impact halfway across the world on the horizon, cannot be ignored.
Two swords crossed block the incoming arrow, and another shockwave erupts from this point, pushing back thousands of kilometers of demonic clouds.
Two horrendous roars echo through Kelfar, but the lack of atmosphere outside this dome drowns it out; only the sound waves rippling through the demonic energy on this planet can be seen.
–
Not a single person says a word, just watching with wide eyes as the clouds sink back to their natural state.
Though, from the back of the clear dome they stand in, a single silver suit of armor approaches the group.
It does not carry any weapons, and no one here even noticed it until it moved, as there is no living being inside of it.
However, the voice that echoes out from where its mouth should be is one that both Bri and Monk recognize very well. It is Alveron.
"I'm glad you could all make it here on time and were welcomed with quite the display from Kelfar's kings... The strongest warriors of this world, trapped in an eternal battle."
The silver knight turns to pretend to look up at the sky.
However, many solar systems away, Alveron continues to float in his ocean world, spreading his aura out from the empty suit of armor to analyze his new guests with curiosity.
His gaze stays on each of them for quite a while, very intrigued with Arie and Luna's strange demonic mutations and Monk's pure Qi-infused body.
However, the creature stares into Maria's Soul Energy Core for over a full second in wonder, and when it moves its gaze to Abby, for some reason its senses just phase right through, unable to read any data.
The knight turns back to its audience and raises both of its hands to point to the planet-sized moons in orbit around the Demonic World.
"Well, as requested, I have prepared four cultivation environments suitable for warriors of your stature."
The generals' attention is grasped at this point, and each of them pulls a small percentage of stats from their pool of trillions of links to enhance their vision and turn their heads to the moons in the sky.
Massive black stone fortresses are built on each desolate moon.
They give off the faint radiation of yellow divine energy.
Alveron immediately picks up on the strange synchronistic rise in strength that boosted all of their base stats by multiple world classes in an instant and is even more fascinated, as it knows this is just the tip of the iceberg of strange events it will get to study.
Though, its emotionless silver suit of armor that speaks does not care to comment on this event and pulls out eight teleport crystals in individual containment cases while taking a step forward.
"For you, a crystal for transport there; and a crystal back here once you're done."
Everyone receives their transport methods, but Maria is still staring at the moon with entire region-sized facilities on them and speaks up.
"Will those really be enough? For us to go all out?"
Alveron laughs and lets the armor mimic it.
"I assure you, each of these chambers has handled thousands of First-Class monsters' breakthroughs to True Cores, and even deathmatches of beings at total saturation. They are quite unique chambers that only get stronger after every use. Go all out—I challenge you to break them if you can."
A blue glow flickers in her eyes as she turns to the knight and smiles.
"Alright, good. Challenge accepted then, back to work. We may have a five-day head start, but there's no guarantee for any more extra time. I need every minute of focus I can get."
She crushes the teleport crystal and is teleported inside the central chamber of the furthest moon from this base.
A shimmering green sparkle makes the air quiver around Abby as she's already taken too much of the available stats to be stable for long without disrupting the environment of this base, so she crushes her crystal next, turning to Raven.
"Updates every five days. See you soon."
Raven nods but doesn't say a word—she just crushes her crystal and disappears too.
Arie stays staring up at the Demonic World with his senses pushing outward far enough to feel into the swirling dark clouds.
His eyes widen even further once another exchange from the two Kings rattles the world below.
He turns to Luna by his side.
"Hey, even if you borrow all the stats available to you, I would steer clear from the Kings. There's something off about them... They feel too... cold? Focus on your own objective."
Arie's mind mentally maps out the tens of thousands of other demonic beasts he saw while sending out his perception to this side of the world and grins when he senses a majority of them hold the Concentrated Essence he's looking for.
"—And save some beasts for me." He crushes his crystal too and leaves for the nearest moon base.
Alveron's mind within the silver suit of armor pulls out another eight containment cases and hands them out to the Commanders left here.
"I predict you're all very clear on your mission? Retrieve as many artifacts from the Ancient Wyvern's civilization as you can, and they are all yours to keep—no strings attached—as long as I can have detailed holographic replicas to study."
Everyone nods slowly, beginning to pull a small percent of stats themselves in order to prepare and calm their nerves.
Alveron catches this as their Class rating rises in front of his eyes again but replies as if it never happened.
"I do recommend you follow the words of your friend. The Kings of Kelfar aren't natives here... They are... experiments gone wrong from an old army of demons. We do not know why they fight, but we do know that anyone who gets close enough to try and stop them has never come back. Even the native First-Class demonic beasts of this world do not interfere—and they need armies of their own to be dealt with themselves."
Alveron is speaking the truth, as the slug remembers back to entire First-Class worlds worth of forces attempting to tame and loot this world for its history many times in the past. The fact that it is still rich with demonic life and countless artifacts speaks for itself how those wars went.
The knight speaks again as the planet continues to turn, and over the horizon, a familiar-looking black tower comes into the vision of everyone on this moon.
"It's rumored a Noble Demon ascended on this world... Though, I came into its possession long after it was drained of its mana. I don't know the full story. Again, you may leave whenever you are satisfied. Please do not dive to your deaths meaninglessly. Even a single artifact extraction would be a success."
Monk's mind races with questions at the sight of another throne, and he replies,
"I understand. We will be safe, and we will extract every artifact we can."
His eyes stay glued to the black tower while crushing his crystal.
Luna scans the landscape, knowing that she is here to be the lookout for this extraction operation, but she also looks for more compatible demonic beasts she can add to her buff. Once she pinpoints a few, she grins and crushes her crystal as well.
Fisher and Lydia still look up at the world with their arms crossed and mouths open.
After about ten seconds of silence, Fisher speaks up.
"Well, we didn't rank up again and awaken our yellow cores for nothing. Let's see what we can do."
Lydia nods.
"Agreed. The two of them look eager to get themselves killed, it'll be our job to keep them alive."
They both crush their crystals to teleport down to Kelfar.
–
The dome is silent again, with only Bri and the suit of armor left.
Bri's senses aren't as refined as the generals and commanders, so she just takes in the incredible view of a Demonic World and its moons as any other mortal human would.
Her eyes are opened to the enormity of the universe even wider once again.
Alveron doesn't sense anything strange about this woman.
She is a little bit stronger than average humans, but for some reason, this intrigues the slug creature even more. It admires her ability to grow her influence and authority through using her brain alone.
A small square hatch in the center of the dome opens up, and the silver knight jumps in, disappearing from view.
Though, a voice as clear as day, like the knight is still right in front of her, resonates in her ears.
"You're going to be here for at least three more weeks, right? Might as well get comfortable."
Bri nods slowly and walks over to the hatch. Then, she jumps in after the suit of armor, grasping a teleport crystal back to the human world in her hand as she has no idea where this leads.
Once she hits the ground below this moon base, her grasp on the crystal loosens when she sees what is down here...
Hundreds of holographic screens are visible on the back wall of a massive room.
They range from wide-sweeping surveillance systems of each moon's entire surface to close-up details inside the fortresses.
The generals beginning their cultivation can be seen in crystal clear clarity.
The commanders down on Kelfar, readying themselves in an underground stronghold, are visible there as well.
She can zoom in and out, and there are telepathy options to contact anyone within certain zones of this infrastructure.
There are doors that line this room, with amenities that Alveron has studied from the human forums in the World Wide Connectivity system and tried to replicate. They range from bedrooms, fully stocked fridges and bars, libraries, swimming pools, and even a greenroom full of plants similar to those on most human worlds.
In front of her, on the ground in the middle of the main surveillance room, is an additional welcoming present of three containment cases full of red, orange, and yellow divine fragments. Beside these are additional unique potions and instructions on how to safely break through and consolidate her own divine core.
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Author's Note:
If you're enjoying Dungeon Diver and want to follow Jay on his journey 20+ chapters ahead of schedule, check out the Patreon link in my profile bio.
There's custom chapter art for every new daily upload too!
Thanks for reading:)
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