Chapter 2282: Tunnels
A labyrinth of illusion.
First thing Sam did was of course, activating his energy vision. If the words illusions and formations are put together, the sure fire way to counter it is to understand how the energy is flowing around. The illusions are designed to trick all the senses including the spiritual sense. However, if he goes beyond those senses and focuses on energy, it is hard to do so.
Because, no matter how well the illusion is designed to create fake senses, the flow of energy couldn't be faked. At least not with subpar or even good methods. If someone wants to do it, they have to go beyond, ordinary, good, better and even the best.
They need to go beyond that and aim for the ideal and the perfect.
Of course, there are tricks to create additional layers that could compensate for this lack of this perfection. And Sam realized that the people who created this decided to go that extra step. The moment he activated energy vision, what he saw is something similar to a TV's static.
The energy in this area is very dense, potent to the point that it is masking his vision to identify he energy network corresponding to this formation.
So, the next thing he did is to spread his energy and to activate observation.
It has been a while since he properly used it.
However, as soon as his energy extended past a three feet radius, it stopped spreading and the energy is only on the surface level. As soon as it went deeper into the stone layer that he could touch, it is disappearing.
Almost like a big wormhole is sucking the energy.
Sam opened his eyes and sighed.
It seemed like his shortcut abilities has been limited to a great extent. He needs to do it a bit more traditionally than he wanted to.
So, he took the first step... and the second and the third.
He started walking straight into the tunnel. He couldn't see that far ahead. Only three feet. He even made an energy orb float into that distance. He thought it would stop moving as well, but it didn't. He just couldn't see it.
He could sense a faint connection, but he just couldn't move it.
He made the energy orb crackle, by making the energy go a bit chaotic. But he couldn't heart it. There is nothing to be said about the spiritual sense. He couldn't sense it either.
All senses are being blocked off.
Sam walked for a few minutes, before he saw a left turn. He took it. A few more minutes, this time a right. He took that one too. A few more minutes and another left, this time there also an immediate right turn a few feet away.
Sam walked like that for some time before he turned around to take the route back. However, when he took a few steps, he was dumbfounded to find a wall in front of him.
There is no path. No turn. Nothing.
He had to turn around and take the path going forward. The next turn came. He stopped there for a moment before taking it. He kept his eyes on the turn while walking. Three feet...
Three feet later, the turn disappeared. He hurriedly came back to find the wall.
*KNOCK*
*KNOCK*
Sam knocked on the wall to check if it is an illusion. But the sound was genuine. The observation ability also didn't reveal any signs of it being fake.
He was very tempted to punch it through. But the stupid rule of not using attacks, tied him down a bit.
Sam turned around and walked forward. Next time he saw a turn, he created several orbs. All of them are small and they are all connected to him. He let them float stationarily. Since the energy orbs can exist after three feet as long as they are not touching the floor, Sam made the orbs occupy the turn as he walked forward.
After three steps, the turn disappeared. When he walked, only half of the energy orbs are there for him to see. The other half disappeared.
Sam tried to sense them, but with every passing second the connection became weaker and finally the connection disappeared completely.
Sam absorbed the energy orbs back in.
Just from this time, he already guessed what is happening. The tunnel path that he is taking is not stationary. They are all shifting.
Sam took the next turn and jumped the three feet instead of walking. Even before a second, he reached the three feet mark and came back.
The turn disappeared and there is wall.
The shift also seemed extremely fast. Almost like a flash.
Sam felt a bit stifled.
He could guess what kind of approach the others will take.
The most sought out approach will be to place a tracking formation before the turn and see where it goes. If repeated a few times, they can find a pattern. They also identify if any given moment, which tunnel is actually moving.
The one the candidate is at or the empty tunnels.
Even if people have different ideas about solving this, most would take this as first approach. Even Sam couldn't think something better than this. However, it would be two slow. He cannot just try to find answers to one question after another. It is boring.
He needs to find them all at once.
Sam walked to the next turn. It is a square corner. He thought for a moment and took out some metal pins.
He is using them as formation nodes. He could go with an energy orb formation, but this is better. He doesn't want to waste too much energy. The pins would suffice for now.
He also didn't use any energy source. They created such a dense energy environment to mask any form of energy sensing, so he might as well use it to his benefit.
And he is doing that in such a large scale.
He started energizing the pins and placed them as formation nodes creating small formations. They are basic trap formations that create energy explosions. When the rules
were told, the clear mention of attacks piqued him.
They cannot attack using their regular moves, but there is no mention of attack formations. Anyway, a trap formation is not exactly considered and attack formation.
After laying down every trap formation, he layered another formation on top of it.
An energy gathering and condensing formation. It is pretty self-explanatory. The trap formation usually explodes with whatever surrounding energy was gathered in it to explode when some sort of energy fluctuation, whether it is big or small, whether it is natural, or artificial, it would explode.
The energy gathering formation, gathers and condenses the energy. Now combining those
two...
The energy will keep on piling up to the limit. At least until the formation cracks or until formation nodes are destroyed. It basically depends on the quality. Sam is not putting much effort in that department.
He laid down a formation within the tunnel he is in. He laid down one for every foot until he reached the wall. After that, he took a few more pins and started laying down on big
formation that occupies the whole tunnel.
This formation only has one duty, that is to connect all the trap formations that he laid before. Which means, if one of them goes boom, everything else goes boom.
After that, he didn't wait there anymore and took the turn. He didn't even turn back or test the wall's appearance. He just made started laying the formations down one by one in the similar fashion until he encountered the next turn.
While doing so, he was also observing something else.
The connection with the formations. He obviously connected himself with the formations
that he laid in the previous tunnel. Even though he couldn't sense the exact distance, he did sense that they are still in tact.
He took the next turn and did the same once again, laying down formations.
And the next turn after that.
But when it came to fifth turn, Sam smiled. He didn't have to lay down the formations
anymore, because they are already there in this one.
And they are the first set of formations he laid down.
He crossed the formations without triggering the traps and took the turn.
Another tunnel appeared.
He saw the formations again, however they are not the second set, but the third.
The next one was the second set and the later one was the first set again. Sam walked until he encountered all four and didn't encounter any empty tunnel.
There are only four tunnels and they are all moving. Of course, one might wonder that it
would be easier to just draw a line or something. Sam could have saved a lot of time making the formations. Of course, as mentioned before, he didn't want to take too much time.
When the next turn came, Sam stood at the square corner and laid down another formation. This time, he connected this formation to both the sets that are already there.
He then took a deep breath and kicked the wall slightly to move to the other end of the tunnel
in a flash.
*CRACK*
He could hear a faint cracking sound as he did so.
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