Dungeon Diver: Stealing a Monster's Power

Chapter 132

After my first long day of training, the next morning is not pretty...

I groan while stretching my arms and back out on the floor. My muscles feel sore and my skin feels tingly like mini pins and needles all over. My eyes adjust to the blinding white light around and I slowly sit up to let out a long exhale. All attempts at self-regeneration fail to fix much. It must be over-use of my abilities, I haven't ever processed this much mana in one sitting. I've felt a similar way after a long hunting session, but never to this extent.

I grab another bottle of water, then a handful of fruit, and go for my morning stroll. The mind-numbing pacing begins again. I have to pee pretty badly after a long night's sleep. At first, I panic but decide it's really the least of my worries. Bodily waste can be easily burned to nothing but ash and water vapor.

After about half an hour of procrastinating and fully waking myself up, I get to work on my new training regime.

At first, it's a bit of a tough start. My bones and joints feel sore and my muscles ache while holding onto my blades. I push through. Many tens of thousands of mana points surge through my body today.

After 10 total charge-up sessions over the next 8 hours, it feels like every millimeter of my body has been ripped apart with a dull knife and taped back together by a toddler. I collapse onto the ground beside my loot piles once again with a satisfied yet exhausted grin across my face.

A lot of progress was made today. Now, in just 25 seconds, I can store up to 4200MP in both blades. The progression is slowing, but it's far from over yet. I can feel a breakthrough coming soon, I just have to keep pushing.

Day 3 comes along and I realize I've just been counting days by sleep cycles... I'm not exactly sure how long I'm out each "night" and it's still even hard to tell how long I'm awake each "day". They're just guesses.

My teammates at the Association are probably worried sick and the Director most likely thinks I've bailed and gone rogue... None of that matters now though. My only worry is making it out of this prison alive.

Surprisingly, my body feels a lot better this morning. Sure, my joints and muscles feel like they've been run over by a truck... but that truck definitely lightened its load since it flattened me yesterday.

I take my usual morning pacing session while snacking on a handful of fruit, then get to work.

My body allowed for 12 full charge-ups today. In 35 seconds, I can store a little more than 4500MP in each blade. Together, that's just over 9000. Every attack I release becomes tighter, and more refined. The mana lets out a higher-pitched hum and the crescents of light are denser and thinner.

Every collision with the white wall gives me another glimmer of hope. It vibrates and shakes the room a little bit more with every tweak I achieve while improving my ultimate attack.

I fall asleep and repeat the process on day 4.

Then again, on day 5.

Over 100,000MP surges through my body each day, and I'm able to handle more and more every passing moment. The outside world begins to fade away from the forefront of my mind as I focus on one goal.

"I need to create a stronger attack."

On day 6, I start to get a bit frustrated. My progression is slowing down drastically, and my body's fatigue is building up again. After 16 full charges, I can manage just under 10000 MP in total. This is pushing to my absolute limits. While hands cramp and flesh burns holding on for almost 40 seconds, this is the best I can manage.

Along with my nearing plateau, the slowly diminishing food and water supplies are nerve-racking. I've started eating less and conserving more water as well. There's only 3 kg of jerky, 5 handfuls of fruit, and 10 bottles of water remaining.