[CH399+ Continued] Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power

Chapter 448

As these questions about my ranked-up buff continue to race through my mind, we come face to face with the Abyss, and I save my theories for later when I can actually test them. Arie opens his status to see the new skill shared with him.

A flash of white light shimmers all around him and creates a single body double. I do an All-Seeing Eye scan to confirm a copy of his greater demon's core did in fact manifest in his new body.

I point at the Abyss.

"Alright, it's time to begin your training."

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It takes a while to get started because without a Demonic Energy Manipulation skill, the unrefined energy that drops from monsters cannot be manipulated from long distances. However, after a few trial and error attempts, we figure out a way for Arie to channel the unrefined energy into his core.

All it takes is physical contact with a newly slain Demonic Monster.

The first attempt with a Demonic wolf is a success in my eyes. Even though Arie's body double erupts into a massive ball of sparks and explodes on the spot, at least some of the Demonic Energy enters his pathways to his core.

It works similarly to using mana control and creating shielding, but without a mana manipulation skill. Even though Arie doesn't have a Demonic Energy Manipulation skill, he can still move the energy around and sync his movements with his core.

Just the fact alone that a demon's core is in his body opens up the possibilities of wielding this new energy. However, he still has to learn it from scratch, like I did.

Arie creates 3 more doubles and is determined to improve.

I re-tell the stories of all my past experiences learning to let the Demonic Energy flow through my emptied out mana pathways while turning off the flow of active skills to not mix the two.

It takes dozens of failed attempts of massive balls of sparks and killed body doubles until Arie finally manages to keep some of the energy in his body double's core.

He releases it with a slow drip from his fingertips just like I did when I first started, and also self-destructs when his pathways are not completely cleared out while instinctual mana is used to power footsteps or movement speed.

On the bright side, Arie's high level of knowledge and experience manipulating mana translates over well. In just a few hours, he manages to fully absorb a full 10 units from a fallen Demonic wolf into his core and also can let the energy itself leak from his fingers pretty quickly, activating his mana skills again within minutes and not being overcome with sparks.

This kind of result took me many days to master. However, I didn't have 3 body doubles that speed up training and remove the risks of dying. Plus, he has access to a nearly endless supply of Demonic energy, and of course, most importantly, an excellent teacher.

Once Arie gets the hang of things and has a set goal in mind to replicate the black crescent slash I showed him before we entered the labyrinth, I finally take a break from overseeing him and sit down in the desert sand right outside the abyss and pull one of the isolation pods from my item storage.

I need to be within range of Arie's main body with my Rising Emperor's Domain. It stretches out almost 40 meters now, it's much larger, but the range is still limiting. His doubles are capable of traveling far away and practicing on their own, scouring the edge of the abyss, but I need to stay near the real Arie to continue sharing my skill.

So, we both get situated next to the shade of a small nearby rock structure jutting out of the sand.

"While I have a moment, I think this is a good time to start figuring out how these things work."