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

Chapter 312

The red aura around me dissipates, and in turn, my entire body feels like it just went through hours of intense training.

My mana bar is far from depleted, but my mouth feels dry, and my head starts to ache.

I stumble in my steps for a moment, and my eyes threaten to shut, but I catch myself before falling and keep walking straight ahead.

I wince at the sharp pain that flows through my legs, but activate my self-regeneration skill to try and heal my sore muscles as best I can; as expected, it hardly helps. Abby reacts instantly too, using her restoration skill. Its green healing magic expands beneath my feet before I get another word in.

The soreness and body fatigue start to fade as I face my teammates.

Behind me, high in the sky, red trails of magic residue stay stagnant and slowly swirl in the light nighttime breeze. It gives off a weak and spread-out energy signature but doesn't dissolve into the atmosphere like normal mana or even Demonic Energy.

It's just left behind in trails, following where I previously was.

The healer speaks.

"So how do you feel? And how does the buff feel? I assume it lives up to its description?"

Even with a full restore from Abby, my joints feel stiff, and my muscles are sore. I'm much less fatigued, but my body is still completely exhausted... So that's a good sign. If I needed to jump into battle right now, the minor side effects wouldn't be much of an issue. However, it feels like this kind of fatigue is something only a real meal and sleep can heal over time.

It's a good thing I didn't go all out and only tested this power to a minor extent. It seems the drawbacks of using aggressive amounts of the Red Hydra's energy will have unforeseen fatigue and stress on the body.

"We'll only be able to use this buff in emergencies, or near the end of a battle as a final last-ditch effort. Even after the full restore, I'm not back to 100%. However, the power increase was incredible... and you won't feel the negative side effects until you deactivate the ability. I don't have anything to test it on or compare it to, but it was like I was moving over twice as fast and wielding denser magic while only using my normal energy output. The Hydra's mana intertwined with my own and boosted every movement and attack."

I go into more detail about the whole experience one more time, preparing them to face the Hydra, assuming they'll experience the same mind-bending reality shift that I did.

Arie steps up.

"This makes sense. I'll go next. I know the risks and trust I can handle it with your help."

He turns to Abby as she begins glowing green to power up her restoration circle.

In the meantime, I use telekinesis to float a gem out of the briefcase and up above Arie, waiting for his signal to let it down. We all step far away from the interaction taking place, just like they did for me.

A flash of green light washes over Arie, and he nods, letting me drop the crimson stone into his palms.

Waves of red energy soak his body, and pulsing green energy comes from the desert floor, constantly rebuilding and regenerating the archer's bones and flesh.

This is pretty gruesome to watch.

I could only imagine what everyone was thinking the first time around when they were unsure of what the end result would be.

Arie doesn't scream, move, or do anything but stand still with the red gem in his hands, allowing the energy to seep into his body and bond with his soul.