[CH200+ Continued] Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power

Chapter 287

I whisper under my breath.

"No way... Of course..."

Chester smiles and points to one of the more precisely drawn maps on his notebook papers, happily eyeing me as he realizes I'm piecing together the puzzle on my own.

One of the papers has a ring separated into 4 sections labeled 1-4 and a black void in the center of it. He moves it out of the way and points more specifically to a detailed map of Sector 4 with detailed markings.

The drawings show the city of Solara, then a series of structures with notes and descriptions right between the city and the approaching black void. One of the structures is labeled "The Observatory". There's a small map key that outlines the rough distance between points. It's about 10 kilometers off the northeastern border. So, about a few hour-long trek at a moderate speed.

He speaks.

"This right here is the region I was doing research on over the last few weeks before I was kidnapped by the Inner Circle and questioned for days. There's an abandoned stargazing observatory that is atop a large cliff right on the edge of the incoming Abyss."

Arie interrupts.

"Incoming? What do you mean by incoming? And... North... East...?"

Chester interrupts.

"Yes, Northeast. This is the closest portion of the city to the Abyss. With every surge, the darkness grows closer. It's only gotten significantly worse over the last few months. Most of the neighboring villages outside the city were evacuated. We..."

Chester pauses.

"We... have no idea what happens once they're swallowed up."

Arie keeps his cool calculated expression, seemingly not disturbed by this news but thinking hard.

The old man goes on.

"Most of the tests I've been doing have been to find the best way to reverse its spread, but the matter is impossible to manage and has a violent reaction to any magic that interacts with it. The most fascinating discovery so far is that if a person doesn't activate their magic skills and caries no enchanted items, they can walk through like it is heavy air."

I nod, realizing exactly what this substance is.

He continues.

"It isn't harmful to humans as long as no mana interacts with it. Actually, if we take sight and touch out of the equation, the substance is basically not even there. It doesn't show up on any radars and gives off no heat or energy readings no matter what I do. The only problem is the darkness, and increasing density the further we travel in. There have even been rumors of monsters that lurk deep within the Abyss... No one has managed to kill one yet or directly prove their existence, but I've heard one roar with my own ears just a few nights back before I was caught."

Chester stops talking, giving all of us a moment to digest everything he's just said.

To me, it sounds like this abyss is refined and used up Demonic Energy. The properties he's described and the inability for me to sense or absorb it add up. This is the excess energy that is produced from some reaction that happens every time there is a surge.

The monsters he talks about, on the other hand, confuse me quite a bit. For a monster to survive or even thrive in an environment like this, it would need the ability to control its mana output and not react with the energy around it. Meaning they're all at least ranked up beasts. Or, an even more interesting idea, they're not wielding mana at all. Just like the Black Knights. Demonic Creatures.