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

Chapter 363

I stopped my forward motion for a moment, looking back at the sunlight behind me.

"What is this place made of? I've felt material like this before. It blocks me from using mana... Is this—"

Monk turns around and, placing a finger over his lips again, motions for me to walk further into the dark hallway.

"Hold your questions a little longer."

I try to activate my status window to see if anything works, but the only two things that seem available to me right now are my demonic energy manipulation skill and my red hydra's rage buff. None of my items are giving me any buffs, and even my base stats from leveling up are negated completely. I feel just like I did in those cuffs a few weeks ago, weak like a normal human.

However, the exit is near, and I'm not restrained. The fact that some skills that don't need mana to operate still function is a little bit of a relief too.

I continue to follow him down the hallway. Whatever he can tell me would be the biggest lead I've had yet. So far, no one wants to say a word about this city. Even the legacy fighters were pretty tight-lipped while drunk, or they just didn't have the information I was looking for.

We make it to the end of the single hall, and the two younger men that stood at the front of the open door previously now stand in front of a solid wall. It's the only thing this place leads to...

They both step aside as Monk presses his hand on the black wall and pushes it forward. A white light pierces through the darkness on all edges as we step through and the door closes behind us.

Fluorescent lighting that seems as though it's not powered by mana at all hangs from the ceiling, giving off a small amount of heat and filling the small room with light.

The walls and floors are still made of the same black stone, but now I hear chatter from many people. The sound of music and even laughter sounds like it's coming from below me.

The only thing in this small room is a handrail on both sides that leads to a hole in the floor spiraling downward with a narrow staircase.

Monk doesn't slow down one bit; he just begins walking down the stairs and finally speaks.

"We're contained now; we may both talk freely. No one but us can hear or record us."

I scrunch my eyebrows at this statement, and am about to ask who exactly we should be worried about here, but the sight in front of me as we take steps off the spiral staircase makes my eyes widen with awe.

Easily 50 men, all between 18 and 30, are in a large open room underground. Every one of them wears the same orange clothing as Monk. There are about 2 dozen circular tables, and many of them are eating food together, reading books, and sharing conversation.

Half of them wear transparent wristbands, deactivated just like mine. Others don't even have wristbands on at all.

There are many rectangular door-shaped slits in the walls all around the room that look like they could be pushed in just like the one Monk pushed forward to bring us down here.

He walks forward through the crowds of people.

Some of them stare at me for a moment but look over to Monk, and their expression changes; most smile or bow as we walk by and go back to minding their own business.

One very young man comes close and bows very low, speaking in a relaxed voice.

"Welcome back Elder, your travels have concluded faster than expected. Shall we continue mid-day training without you as scheduled, or now that you're back, do you have other plans?"