Dungeon Diver: Stealing a Monster's Power

Chapter 130

The white light below me continues to grow as I fall further down into the endless void.

I try activating Dungeon Walker over and over, but it's no use. This prison of darkness is inescapable, it's the same sensation of nothingness all around me as when I tried to sense way too deep into the dungeon using my enemy detection skill. Now that I'm inside this energy I can get a better grasp on its vastness.

It wasn't that there was nothing to sense, it was that there was way too much of it. According to all my perception skills, the outside world doesn't even exist anymore... I'm trapped within the Titan's Domain. The vast realm of energy surrounding me is way too immense for me to comprehend.

Almost a full 3 minutes pass as I continue to fall. At this point, I've given up on trying to slow my descent or escape my fate whatsoever. The only thing on my mind is bracing for impact. That white light below me is getting larger and larger, meaning whatever is down there is getting closer and closer.

My skills still work, they're just isolated in this odd pocket of space. I activate my body harden crystals, try to slow my fall with wind magic, and to top it all off, constantly plunder MP from my surroundings. The air is rich with mana, I can absorb it indefinitely, but that can't exactly help me in my current predicament.

Gritting my teeth, I continue to fall. The tiny pinhole-sized beam of light below me has grown to look more like a handheld sports ball now. It's growing faster than before, but my frame of reference is skewed. There's not exactly much for me to compare it to in this pitch-black abyss.

Another minute passes of constant MP plundering and futile attempts to slow my fall. The gravity is this pocket is not normal... No matter what I do, I'm pulled downward with an eerily overpowering force. The bright white light below me is about the size of a kid's pool now, and I can tell its shape more clearly. It's a long rectangular box and growing fast...

I hold my breath as the white light fills my field of vision. The darkness above fades away as I'm engulfed in white light.

The temperature shifts from cool black darkness to hot and dry light. The mana feels more refined and denser in here, it almost feels sharp like little pinpricks as I try to absorb it. So many sensations come over my body all at one time, it's hard to keep track of these changes or even explain anything that's going on around me... I just accept my fate and continue bracing my body for impact.

Finally, I land on something solid with a loud thud followed by a series of cracks. I feel my bones crunch as they hit an impossibly hard white floor. I still grip both my red daggers tightly as black body-hardening crystals shatter somewhat cushioning the fall. I try to lift myself with wind magic, but the damage has already been done. Letting out a loud grunt and a yell of agony, I lie on the ground for a moment in horrible pain. I watch the last portion of the black abyss fade away as the white ceiling closes shut overhead.

Coughing up mouthfuls of blood and regenerating a broken arm and leg, I get to my feet very slowly. While plundering the highly refined mana from the air and floor beneath my feet, I reach into my item storage to drink an HP potion while putting away my daggers.

I blink a few times, then take a few steps forward to hear the light echo of my boots against the marble-like floor below me. I gulp, looking around in every direction to see pure whiteness.

I run straight ahead into the void of whiteness... Less than 10 seconds later my face is met with a rudely placed white wall.

*THUD*

Clenching my jaw I turn to my right and try running in this direction straight ahead too. Less than 5 seconds later, my forehead bounces off another not-so-pleasant white wall of refined mana. Using my wind magic, I air-step upwards to be met with a ceiling made of the same dense material.

It seems I'm stuck in a white rectangular box... It's about 100m long, 50m wide, and 20m tall. The void of darkness I was just falling through is nowhere to be seen. I yell out into the empty white room.

"Hello?? Wha-"

I stop mid-sentence as my voice echoes eerily around the walls fading into silence moments later.

The reality of my situation begins to sink in. Activating all my buffs, and perception-based skills including enemy detection and my All-Seeing Eye, I attempt to find a weak point or some clue of where exactly I am. Now that I'm not falling through endless space it'll be a bit easier to concentrate.

I sit down, take a deep breath. Activating my All-Seeing Eye, I slowly begin to expand my range. Taking in the MP around me using plunderer, I let my perception skill's range seep out as far as it can possibly go.

I'm struck with panic as a gut-wrenching realization comes over me yet again. I vividly remember that dense swirling mana surrounding me on all sides as I fell through darkness moments ago, but a white-walled barrier is blocking me from viewing it now on all sides. There's no exit anywhere in sight. It's like trying to break out of a dungeon without a portal to escape. I can sense that there is space beyond these walls, but trying to access it physically or mentally is far beyond my current capabilities.

I gulp.

"I'm really stuck in the Titan's Domain...."

Anger rushes over me. I pull out my dagger, merge them together, then grab my sword. Without thinking, I start launching full-power attacks at the walls around me.

Metallic clangs echo throughout my white-walled prison as the crescents of energy released from my blade collide with the dense lightly humming mana shields.

Over and over... for almost half an hour straight... I continue to plunder MP from the endless supply at my fingertips and release waves of fire and wind at my surroundings.

Dripping sweat, and breathing heavily, I fall to my knees.

*THUD*

I lie with my back flat on the ground with my sword and dagger by either side as I slowly regain my breath. That little temper tantrum gave me a well-needed dopamine fix for the time being... My mental clarity is back. I let out a sigh, then sit up to place my elbows on my knees.

"Well... for the time being, I might as well see what I'm working with."

I begin sifting through my item storage pulling out every item I own one by one. I make a pile of useless loot that I've been meaning to sell but have just been distracted lately and never got around to it.

It contains a few swords, a shield, some charms, a staff, some clubs and spears, a massive tooth and pearl, a few old daggers, a shaman key, some cursed shackles, tons of miscellaneous coins, a few rings I took off earlier today to fit my new daggers and lenses into my equipped items, and lastly some D-Class potions.

In a second pile, I take out the ruby-colored dungeon egg along with all of my mana crystals.

Lastly, the most important pile is my food and water. Luckily, I still have some leftover dried meat and fruit from the exam. It's a good thing I picked up extras at the convenience store during our break between the first and second tests. This is more than enough to last me a few days comfortably, maybe even a week. My water stores are even better, I have just over a dozen 1-liter bottles.

I let out a sigh while looking at my loot scattered across the ground.

"Now... how am I going to get myself out of this mess...?"