Dungeon Diver: Stealing a Monster's Power

Chapter 107

He nods and turns his head back towards the rippling light and grins slightly. It feels like a small weight has been lifted off his shoulders. I smile back and turn to wait for Bruce as well.

Internally, my mind is moving rapidly trying to piece this new puzzle together. The Dark Continent is a lawless country that's mostly closed off to the rest of the world. It's known for having monsters roam free and is home to a variety of crime syndicates, that's what I've read in the newspaper at least.

It is literally blocked off from all civilized society. About a decade ago, several of the A-Class Hunters teamed up to surround the quarantined area with what is now known as the "Great Ravine". It's a massive kilometer-wide, endlessly-deep hole in the ground that stretches hundreds of kilometers around the entire continent.

This is used to keep dangerous monsters from escaping to any protected countries. This keeps many humans trapped there too. It's very uncommon to find anyone entering or leaving that place. Apparently, Arie grew up there...

While deep in thought, the wall of rippling light in front of me starts to move and a grinning tank walks out with a shield by his side and a bloodied war hammer over his shoulder.

"Hey! Hey! I made it to the final round!"

I can't help smiling, Bruce always lightens the mood.

"We all made it, glad to see you in one piece!"

He lets out a laugh and throws his hammer into the item box around his waist, then pats me hard on the shoulder.

"I'm starving! Let's sit down and get some grub!"

"Haha- Sounds good."

I turn to Arie to give him a reassuring nod.

"Let's take a well-deserved break."

The three of us walk over to the table that the girls prepared. They already have mountains of dried food and water bottles at the ready. MP and HP potions are lined up and a few items are being passed around.

Abby is the first to wave us down with a face full of food.

"Hey!! We all made it through, come on! Have a seat!"

The six of us take a load off for the next two hours. We fill our stomachs, lay down for a bit, and make guesses about what this final test could possibly be.

Every minute that goes by builds my excitement. This is the final test... it has to be hard... right? Everyone that's made it this far is much stronger than any regular C Class hunter would ever have to be.

Most of the C Classes I've met were well under level 300. This exam is different from the others, Rodrigo even said so... That the Hunters Association is testing for something specifically this time around.

As I digest my food, as well as my wildly scattered thoughts, more and more hunters appear from the dungeon's entrance to sit at the various tables all around us.

I hear the A-Class examiner's voice wake me up from my daydreams. He's standing on top of one of the tables and attempting to get everyone's attention.

"Everyone, everyone. Please, listen up! Only 73 of you have arrived so far, and according to my monitors, there are some stragglers, but they may take hours to arrive. If they do, great we have 27 more slots. If they don't that's unfortunate. There's no time limit for this final test, so if we begin now, there's no huge advantage for all of you."

The hunters begin gathering around and chattering softly to each other as Rodrigo continues.

"This is your final test and happens to be the final dungeon in this labyrinth.... Well, there is the boss floor above us, but none of you are ready for that."

A small grin appears across Rodrigo's face, and I see a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. This is the first time I've seen him show any signs of genuine emotion. He continues.

"You may group up into teams of as many hunters as you wish, there is no hard limit. Your only objective is to clear the boss room.... Together."

The crowd of hunters erupts in confusion. Rodrigo slowly nods and continues.

"As I said, this is the last dungeon floor. It will be a tough challenge, but not impossible. Plus, there will be a twist at the end. While in the boss room, I will be giving every hunter a personal handicap based on the data accumulated from my monitors. It will force you into difficult situations, relying on your trusted teammates to cover for the abilities you lack."

Irritated whispers come out from the crowd. Rodrigo carries on.

"I will personally be watching each and every one of your fights with this final boss. If you can take it out as a team following my handicap rules, you shall pass. If even one team member dies or breaks the rules, your whole team will be disqualified. Understood?"

Nods and replies of agreement follow as Rodrigo counties to speak.

"You may train for as long as you need, but considering you all made it this far I assume you aren't the types to wait around. There will be no handicaps while training so go all out. I encourage you to try out some unorthodox fighting methods in this dungeon, you may need the practice sooner than you think. I will be waiting at the boss room portal to run down the rules with you one last time and watch your final fight."

He lets out a sigh.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't kill each other on this floor, but I guess it's still not against the rules. Anyways, good luck. I'll see you at the boss room for your final test."

With a smile, a flash of light blinds me and the bearded man disappears. The rippling light surrounding us dissipates and the full glory of the dungeon becomes very clear.

Those tall red towering mountains of rock from before look like ant hills compared to the monstrous peak before my eyes. The jagged mountain of endless dark red stone pierces through the sky higher than my eyes can even see.

Rivers of red-hot molten rock slowly gush down the sides of the towering structure as it gets thinner and thinner the higher it rises up into the jet-black sky.

A few winding trails lead up the mountain. My eyes follow them upwards in awe.

"So this... is the final dungeon..."