Read Novel Full Chapter 577 577: Floor 3 - Hollow of the Sunless Tide
Chapter 577 577: Floor 3 - Hollow of the Sunless Tide
[-16,847,293 HP]
[Nightmare-Ranked Wind Serpent Eliminated]
[+50,000 EXP]
[+2,700 Death Tokens]
[+1 Nightmare Core]
The creature's enhanced speed became a liability rather than an advantage, its momentum carrying it directly into the weak attack's path, where damage exceeding sixteen million eliminated it so thoroughly that nothing remained except the core that the System automatically collected.
The remaining serpents fell quickly, Jack's minimal-effort attacks generating damage numbers that would have seemed impossible under normal circumstances.
Each strike used a fraction of his mana, requiring almost no physical exertion, and produced results that trivialized threats designed to challenge even high-level warriors.
The learning curve was steep but manageable.
His SS-rank talent classification and extensive combat experience let him adapt to inverted mechanics faster than normal warriors could have processed the possibility.
Within a few minutes, he had assimilated the new patterns, and his tactical understanding was automatically calculating the most efficient, low-output attacks rather than continuing with overpowering ones.
The System notifications accumulated steadily as his experience and Death Token totals climbed with each elimination.
[+1,750 EXP]
[+525 Death Tokens]
[+1 Terror Core]
[+2,500 EXP]
[+750 Death Tokens]
[+2 Dread Cores]
[+50,000 EXP]
[+2,700 Death Tokens]
[+1 Nightmare Core]
[+1,750 EXP]
[+525 Death Tokens]
[+1 Terror Core]
The recurring pattern observed throughout numerous eliminations, characterized by Jack's minimal offensive actions, left the battlefield strewn with the remnants of vaporized serpents.
This outcome provided compelling evidence of combat effectiveness, operating on principles that fundamentally challenged his prior understanding of power scaling.
Father Caelen watched the systematic elimination with an expression that mixed professional appreciation and genuine bewilderment.
"You're adapting to mechanics that contradict fundamental combat theory faster than I've ever seen anyone operate in dungeon environments. Most warriors would still be trying to force their normal tactics to work."
The final serpent, a Terror-ranked earth creature whose granite scales had protected it from Father Caelen's staff strikes, tried to flee when it recognized the losing battle.
Jack's response was almost contemptuous, left hand extending with a gesture that released a spark so weak it looked like static from rubbing fabric together.
[-847,219 HP]
[Terror-Ranked Earth Serpent Eliminated]
[+1,750 EXP]
[+525 Death Tokens]
[+1 Terror Core]
Silence fell across the second floor, the inverted forest empty except for scattered cores and the two warriors who'd adapted to bizarre mechanics through a combination of tactical analysis and willingness to abandon everything they'd previously learned about combat.
The exit archway revealed itself among the twisted vegetation, a stone passage leading further upward toward the third floor.
Jack and Father Caelen approached without hesitation, both having internalized the dungeon's inverted progression enough that ascending to descend no longer registered as particularly strange.
Jack stepped through the archway first, his enhanced awareness cataloging the transition as...
Everything vanished.
In an instant, all sensory input was simultaneously eliminated.
Darkness consumed his vision so completely that he couldn't see his own hands despite knowing they were inches from his face.
Silence pressed against his ears with physical weight, eliminating even the sound of his own breathing despite his lungs continuing to function.
The air itself provided no feedback.
No temperature, no pressure variation, no sense of movement that would indicate whether he was in an enclosed space or a vast open area.
His enhanced perception, normally capable of tracking movement in near-total darkness, provided nothing. Just a void where external reality should have existed.
Jack tried speaking, his mouth forming words he knew should produce sound. "Father Caelen? Can you hear me?"
Nothing.
There was no echo or indication that his vocal cords had vibrated.
There was no feedback confirming that he'd actually attempted to communicate.
The sensory deprivation was absolute, eliminating every external cue his enhanced awareness normally processed to navigate reality.
He reached along the Soul Link connecting him to his bound creatures, consciousness interfacing with dimensional space where they resided.
The connection worked; he could sense the Disaster-class serpent's presence and could feel its awareness responding to his mental contact.
But deploying it would add a confused creature experiencing the same sensory void to the situation. The serpent couldn't help navigate when it would be equally blind.
Jack's mind sifted through options, growing frustrated.
Normal navigation was impossible without external cues.
Magic-based detection wouldn't function when he couldn't see results.
Physical exploration by touch would take hours and offer no guarantee of finding the exit in an environment of any size.
He tried walking forward, each step careful as he tested ground that might not exist.
His boots contacted with a solid surface, one, stone probably, but without tactile feedback beyond basic pressure, he couldn't confirm texture or composition.
He continued moving, hands extended to detect obstacles his other senses couldn't perceive.
Five steps.
Ten steps.
Twenty steps.
Forty steps.
His hands never contacted anything, suggesting either a clear path or space so vast that obstacles existed beyond arm's reach.
The complete lack of feedback made it impossible to tell which.
Jack stopped, recognizing the futility of blind wandering.
He needed a different approach, some method of perceiving the environment that didn't rely on the senses the floor had eliminated.
Then understanding clicked into place with the same adaptive recognition that had let him figure out the second floor's mechanics.
He had the resource operating independently of external sensory input, his own mana.
Internal energy that existed within his body and responded to his will regardless of what external reality was doing.
If he could extend that mana outward, let it spread through the environment and bounce off obstacles, then the returning energy would carry spatial information even without being able to see or hear the process.
Echolocation principles are applied to magical energy rather than sound waves.
Jack closed his eyes, a pointless gesture in absolute darkness but helpful for internal focus, and began channeling mana outward from his core.
Not shaped into a specific technique or focused on an attack, just raw mana being released in an expanding sphere around his position.
The sensation was strange, as he felt the mana leave his body and disperse into the void.
For several seconds, nothing happened. The mana spread, apparently lost to whatever mechanism the floor used to eliminate sensory feedback.
Then, barely perceptible, so subtle he almost missed it.
A tiny fraction of the released mana returned to his body.
Bouncing back from some distant obstacle, carrying information about the surface it had contacted.
Jack increased the output, flooding the area around him with mana in a constant expanding pulse.
More energy returned with each wave, the bouncing mana creating a map of the environment that existed purely as a magical sensation rather than visual or auditory data.
It felt like an extension of his own body, phantom limbs that could touch distant surfaces and relay their textures, positions, and compositions.
Stone walls became areas of dense feedback where mana bounced back quickly with solid impact.
Open spaces provided delayed returns where mana had to travel further before finding obstacles.
The inverted forest's twisted vegetation created a complex pattern of varied feedback of organic structures.
Jack began moving again, this time guided by magical echolocation rather than blind wandering.
Each step was guided by a constant mana pulse that updated spatial awareness in real time.
He navigated around obstacles he couldn't see, following the path, the feedback indicated, that led toward an area of less resistance.