I've Got A Mana Processor In A Magic World-Chapter 199: Echolocation

There's not much time, host. So I'll be direct. You can figure out the correct path by creating a spell that simulates echolocation.

"Echolocation—?"

It's the method of discerning distance and shape of objects for some select species of animals that do not have good eyesight.

It works by emitting a sound and interpreting the echo… the way the sound bounces off and wraps around an object, to navigate.

You should be able to do this stably, since you already have a good grasp on sound cancelation. It will only take a slightly different approach to achieve.

"Okay." Zephyr started to follow Aegis' steps as it listed out the specifics of what an echolocation spell should do.

Before anything, Zephyr had to disperse his passively running spell {Silent Mirage}. For this echolocation spell, he needed all the spell-processing headroom he could get. This was no longer a passive spell, but one that he needed to put all the effort he could into.

He terminated the spell instantly, and immediately, the sudden cessation of the sound-swallowing field hit his heightened senses like a punch. It wasn't like when {Silent Mirage} was active, he couldn't hear any sound at all, but the spell still dampened some of the sounds coming into his field to some extent. Now that it was inactive, he could hear everything in its entirety.

You have less than ten seconds remaining, host. The party behind you would be closing in soon, Aegis informed with urgency.

"C'mon Zeph!" Zephyr primed himself. Despite the fact that this was a new spell — one that he'd never even attempted before, he knew there was no room for a mistake. He needed to get this in one go.

His mind shifted into overdrive, visualizing the inverse of the noise cancelling effect of {Silent Mirage}. This new spell aimed to amplify sounds rather than cancel it out. After which Zephyr needed to generate a pulse, then immediately deploy a selective mana-based sound filter around his ears, that would select only the returning echo to map the dozens of honeycomb-like holes in the wall.

Without hesitation, he released a sharp, concentrated, high-frequency click of pure sonic energy directly at the wall…

The feedback was catastrophic.

The sound pulse, combined with the chamber's vastness and the complexity of the honeycomb wall, ricocheted into a hundred directions, bombarding the amplification filter Zephyr created around his ears with too many variables.

It utterly failed to isolate the relevant sounds Zephyr wanted. Instead, the returning sound waves — the pulse, the ambient hum, and echoes from every single hole, collided and amplified each other into a painful, chaotic screeching sound.

"Arrghh!!"

He clamped his hands instinctively over his ears, gasping in pain as his mind was flooded with white, meaningless noise. But he gritted his teeth and pushed through.

That short try had wasted nearly three precious seconds. The champion party behind him was closing in. Through the chaotic jumble of amplified sounds that had flooded his mind just a second ago, he had made out sounds coming from behind too.

'They're almost here…' Zephyr stilled his mind, breathing out slowly. 'It's now or never… Don't overthink, just do—'

"My brother speaks the truth! I have also noticed the same!" The other dwarf supported, "even back in the cavern, it struck me as uncanny… There were no tracks… like a ghost had done the killing—!"

"What's that?!"

Voices suddenly reached Zephyr's ears from behind.

.

.

.

Less than a minute ago…

The party of ten champions — the single female elf variant and her lackey, the four other elf variant girls, the two dwarf variants, the demon variant, and the orc variant — burst into the Level 2 Chamber immediately they cleared the Level 1 Sludge Hulks chamber.

They were talking among themselves, recapping areas of faults where they should have capitalized better, but as soon as the Level 2 chamber opened up to them, they stopped dead in their tracks, mouth agape at the scene of the carnage wreaked in the chamber.

Dozens upon dozens of Obsidian Stalkers lay motionless across the black stone floor, Each body bearing the same wound with a surgical precision — a small, precise, and still sizzling hole in the left abdomen.

"No way," the orc variant grunted as he swept a gaze at the mass of dead monsters. The party didn't even know where to begin. They were shocked by the fact that someone/some people were obviously ahead of them delving the same dungeon. By now there were supposed to be exclamations of such shock… but they had been stilled to silence.

The manner of the kills looked way too clean, to the point where that had quickly become the main focus of every single one of them.

"This wasn't done by a single champion."

"It had to be a team," agreed one of the elf variant girls, her voice high with awe. "Look at the surgical precision. This is organized killing. They must be another powerful team…"

"High on the rankings for sure…" another of the elf variant girls frowned, scanning the carnage, "this is way too clean…"

"The kills are still warm," one of the two dwarfs noted as he dug his fingers into a monster's corpse, "they're not far ahead."

"They must have finished their sweep while we were recovering," the second dwarf concluded with a grunt, "We can still catch up to them if we're quick enough!"

For the first time, the whole party seemed to be in consensus. The demon, orc and dwarf variants were eager, and the elf variant girls were even more so.

The single female elf and her lackey also seemed eager, or at the very least, curious.

They all hurtled out of the chamber and toward the end of the tunnel, where the large wall, with its dozens of black, honeycomb-like entrances came into view.

"Wait. Why are there no tracks?" demanded one of the dwarf variants as they sprinted down the tunnel.

"The ground's hard stone dimwit!" the orc variant leading the charge with his superior stride snapped in response.

"I don't care if it's stone! With my skill set, I can see friction patterns on rocks! We should be seeing scuff marks, residues, trails… something!"

"My brother speaks the truth! I have also noticed the same!" The other dwarf supported, "even back in the cavern, it struck me as uncanny… There were no tracks… like a ghost had done the killing—!"

"What's that?!" He was cut off by the orc up front as the large wall came into view.

"More tunnels?!"

"Ah, shit! How do we know which is the right way?!" the demon variant cursed, skidding to a halt along with the others.

"Relax," the first dwarf said, stepping forward. "They were not far ahead of us in the first place, so except they knew the correct path from the onset, there is no way they have pushed ahead…"

One of the elf variant girls suddenly chuckled, "So they must've split up. Which means…" she glanced at the other champion's faces, trying to pass on her train of thought.

"...which means there will be some of them coming out of tunnels with dead ends pretty soon," another elf variant finished.

"So we wait?"

"We wait."

And wait they did…

For more than five minutes.