The fight was brutal but manageable. HisDragonfire Manipulationwas actually superior to their flame control. He devoured all seven Titans, gainingMagma Manipulation (Moderate)andHeat Aura (Strong).

In Floor Fifty-Two, the chamber was a void—no floor, no ceiling, no walls. Just infinite darkness in all directions. And floating in that darkness were creatures of pure entropy.

[Void Spawn - Level 45]x?

He couldn’t tell how many there were. They appeared from nowhere, attacked, then vanished back into the void. Each strike drained his life force directly, bypassing hisRegeneration.

[HP: 2847/4600]

[Life Force Drain: -127]

[HP: 2720/4600]

[Life Force Drain: -134]

HisRegenerationwas working frantically, but it couldn’t heal what was being drained at the spiritual level. He was being eaten alive by creatures he could barely see.

Satou activatedDragon’s Roar.

The sound that emerged from his throat was nothing human or even goblin-like. It was the primal scream of an apex predator, reality-shaking force given voice.

The voidrecoiled. The Void Spawn became visible, their forms flickering as the roar disrupted their intangibility.

Satou used that moment to activateDevouringon a massive scale, his shadow expanding in all directions. The Void Spawn tried to flee back into the darkness, but his shadow was faster, consuming fifteen of them before they could escape.

[Void Spawn Devoured x15]

[Void Step (Moderate) Acquired - Teleport through absolute darkness]

[Life Drain Resistance (Strong) Acquired]

[Entropy Resistance (Weak) Acquired]

Floors 52 to 62 were a gauntlet of elite elemental beasts, each one designed to counter his known abilities.

Satou adapted instantly devouring fire wolves to gain Heat Resistance, ripping cores from ice golems to strengthen his mana flow, and using Shadow Step to bypass lightning serpents altogether. His movements became sharper, his instincts more predatory.

Floor Sixty-Threehad Time Wyrms that kept resetting the fight whenever Satou gained an advantage.

He’d get one of them down to critical health, then time would reverse fifteen seconds. He’d adapt and try a different approach, get two of them wounded, then time would reverse thirty seconds.

The fight lasted subjectively hours as time looped again and again. Satou’sMental Fortitudewas the only thing preventing him from going insane as he experienced the same moments dozens of times.

Finally, he realized the pattern. The Time Wyrms could only reverse time when they acted together. If he killed them all simultaneously—

He set up an elaborate trap usingEarth Manipulation,Magma Manipulation, andDragonfire. Got all five Time Wyrms into position. Then triggered everything at once.

The explosion was massive enough to shake the entire floor. All five Wyrms died in the same instant, giving them no time to reverse.

[Floor Sixty-Three Complete]

He devoured them and gainedTemporal Resistance (Moderate)andHaste (Weak)—the ability to slightly speed up his own perception of time.

Floor Seventywas when things got truly nightmarish.

The chamber was a perfect replica of his settlement. Every building exactly where it should be. Every person going about their day. Lyra working at her desk. Kelvin training with other goblins. Urgak overseeing construction. Jessica tending to the healing hall.

All of them were dead.

Walking corpses, animated by something dark and twisted. They turned toward him with empty eyes.

[Loved Ones (Corrupted) - Level 48]

"Hello, Satou," dead-Lyra said, her voice wrong. "We’ve been waiting for you. You abandoned us. Left us to die while you played in a dungeon."

"None of this is real," Satou said, his voice shaking.

"Does it matter?" dead-Kelvin asked. "You left us. You failed us. Now we’re going to make you join us."

They attacked.

Satou couldn’t do it. Couldn’t raise his sword against even corrupted versions of the people he loved. His hands trembled. His resolve cracked.

Dead-Lyra’s knife sank into his stomach. Dead-Kelvin’s blade opened his throat. Dead-Jessica’s healing magic inverted, causing his organs to fail instead of heal.

[HP: 1876/4600]

HisRegenerationkicked in, healing the wounds, but they just attacked again. And again. And again.

Satou closed his eyes. "I’m sorry," he whispered. "But you’re not them. You’re nightmares wearing their faces."

He fought with his eyes closed, relying onEnhanced Hearing,Tremor Sense, and his other senses. Not seeing their faces made it possible to strike them down.

When he finally opened his eyes, the corpses were dissolving into shadow. They’d never been real.

But the emotional damage was. Satou vomited in the corner of the chamber, his hands still shaking.

[Floor Seventy Complete]

[Mental Fortitude (Superior) → Mental Fortitude (Legendary)]

Floor Seventy-Fivewas labeled "The Gauntlet of Despair."

Ten mini-bosses in succession, each one exploiting a different weakness. He fought a creature that nullified hisRegeneration, forcing him to fight with only his natural durability. He fought something that sealed his magic, leaving only physical combat. He fought an enemy that copied his abilities and used them better than he did.

By the fifth mini-boss, he’d used all his remaining healing potions.

By the seventh, he was fighting on pure adrenaline and stubbornness, hisBlood FrenzyandBerserker Ragecombining to push him past his limits.

By the tenth, he was more dead than alive, held together only bySurvivor’s Willand his legendaryRegeneration.

[Floor Seventy-Five Complete]

[+75,000 EXP]

[Level Up! Level 35 → Level 40]

He collapsed and didn’t move for six hours, hisRegenerationslowly putting him back together piece by piece.

Floor Eighty-Threehad Silence Wraiths that removed all sound from the chamber.

Complete. Total. Absolute silence.

Satou couldn’t hear his own heartbeat. Couldn’t hear his breathing. HisEnhanced Hearingwas useless. HisEcholocationproduced no echoes because sound itself didn’t exist here.

The Silence Wraiths attacked from angles he couldn’t predict. Without sound, his danger sense was crippled. A blade would appear from nowhere, cutting deep into his back. HisRegenerationwould heal it, then another blade from a different angle.

[HP: 2847/5000]

[HP: 2623/5000]

[HP: 2401/5000]

Death by a thousand cuts. HisRegenerationwas working overtime again, burning through stamina to heal wounds faster than they accumulated.

He had to adapt. Started relying purely onTremor Senseto detect movement. OnTrap Detectionto predict attack patterns. OnAncient Dragon’s Wisdomto calculate probabilities of where strikes would come from.

It took three hours of constant combat before he finally killed all the Silence Wraiths. When sound returned, the first thing Satou heard was his own ragged breathing.

[Silence Wraith Devoured x23]

[Silent Movement (Advanced) Acquired]

[Sound Manipulation (Weak) Acquired]

Floor Ninetywas the final checkpoint.

The chamber was enormous. And in the center stood a single figure.

It was him. But not his Shadow Self from before. This was him as he might become—corrupted, twisted, consumed by power.

[Dark Satou - Level 50]

This version of himself had given in toBerserker Ragecompletely. Had usedDevouringwithout restraint, consuming friend and foe alike. Had let the Dragon essence corrupt him fully. It was everything Satou might become if he lost his humanity.

"You know this is your future," Dark Satou said. "The power you’ve gained has changed you. You’re not the goblin who entered this dungeon anymore. You’re not even really a person. You’re a monster wearing a person’s skin."

"I’m still me," Satou said.

"Are you? Can you even remember what your human face looked like? Can you remember your human name? How much of ’you’ is left, Satou? And how much is just accumulated powers from creatures you’ve eaten?"

The question hit harder than any physical blow. Because Satou couldn’t remember his human name. Couldn’t quite recall his human face. Those memories had been eroding slowly, replaced by the experiences and essences of hundreds of devoured creatures.

"It doesn’t matter," Satou said finally. "I’m not my past. I’m what I choose to be now. And I choose to protect my people. That’s enough."

"Noble words from a monster."

Dark Satou attacked.

The fight was the hardest yet because his opponent knew everything—every technique, every weakness, every strategy. Worse, Dark Satou had no restraint. When it usedDevouring, it didn’t just consume corpses. It tried to devour Satoualive, mid-combat.

Satou’s shadow and Dark Satou’s shadow clashed like living creatures, each trying to consume the other. The sensation was horrifying—feeling his own essence being pulled away, devoured by a version of himself.

[HP: 3205/5000]

[Essence Drain: -247]

[HP: 2958/5000]

HisRegenerationcouldn’t keep up with having his very existence eaten. He was losing.

Then Satou did something desperate. Instead of fighting theDevouring, hefedit. Channeled hisDragonfiredirectly into Dark Satou’s shadow as it tried to consume him.

The effect was immediate. Dark Satou screamed as dragonfire burned through its essence from the inside. Its shadow recoiled, smoking and damaged.

Satou pressed the advantage. UsedVoid Stepto teleport behind his dark self. Drove his claws (he’d long since lost his sword and learned to fight with his dragon-enhanced natural weapons) through Dark Satou’s chest.

Then he activatedDevouring.

But instead of consuming Dark Satou, he only took back what had been stolen—his own essence, returned from the dark mirror.

Dark Satou dissolved, not defeated butreintegrated. The darkness wasn’t destroyed—it was accepted and integrated back into Satou’s whole self.

[Floor Ninety Complete]

[Dark Self Reintegrated]

[Shadow Mastery (Unique) Acquired]

[Devouring (SSS-Rank) → Devouring (SSS-Rank+) Upgraded]

[Checkpoint Reached: Rest Period Extended to 96 Hours]

[Ten Floors Remaining]

[Warning: Floors 91-100 are Legendary Difficulty]

[Survival Rate: Less than 0.1%]

[Proceed Only If Absolutely Certain]

Satou had been in the dungeon for sixty days. Six days had passed outside. He had one day left before his fight with Richard Clay.

Which meant he had ten days inside to clear ten floors.

He’d come too far to turn back now.

The rest chamber for Floor Ninety was different from the others. Larger. More ornate. And in the center sat a table with supplies that hadn’t been there before—ten pristine mana potions in crystal vials, glowing with condensed magical energy.

A notification appeared:

[The Dungeon Acknowledges Your Progress]

[Reward: 10 High-Grade Mana Potions]

[Note: You will need them for what comes next]

Satou picked up one of the vials, feeling the power within. Each potion contained enough magical energy to fully restore his reserves three times over. The dungeon itself was giving him supplies for the final stretch.

That should have been comforting. Instead, it was terrifying. If the dungeon thought he’d need this much magical power just to survive...

He secured all ten potions to his belt, checked his remaining supplies (no healing potions left, but hisRegenerationhad become so powerful that minor wounds healed in seconds anyway), and descended to Floor Ninety-One.

The heat hit him like a physical wall. The entire floor was a massive forge, with rivers of molten metal flowing through channels carved into the ground. The ceiling glowed red-hot, dripping liquid steel.

And standing throughout the forge were constructs—not living creatures, but weapons given form.

[Living Armament - Level 52]x12

They were humanoid shapes made entirely of enchanted weapons. Swords for arms. Shields for torsos. Spears for legs. Each one radiated magical power so intense that the air around them shimmered.

The moment Satou entered, all twelve turned toward him as one.

Then they attacked with perfect coordination.

Satou activatedTrue Flight, launching himself into the air as a dozen weapon-limbs struck where he’d been standing. The stone floor cracked from the impact.

He retaliated withDragonfire Manipulation, unleashing a torrent of flames hot enough to melt normal steel. The Living Armaments simply walked through it, their enchanted metal unaffected.

Physical attacks are their nature. Magic won’t work conventionally.

One Armament hurled its sword-arm like a javelin. The weapon flew faster than Satou could dodge. It punched through his shoulder, pinning him to the wall.

[HP: 3678/5100]

Pain exploded through him. HisRegenerationimmediately began healing the wound, but the sword was enchanted—it resisted being pushed out, fighting his regenerative ability.

Three more Armaments charged his position. Satou activatedPhase Step, his body becoming intangible just long enough to slip through the wall. He emerged on the other side, the sword-arm falling uselessly.

His shoulder healed in seconds, flesh knitting back together where the hole had been.

I need to destroy them all quickly before they overwhelm me.

Satou channeledEarth ManipulationandMagma Manipulationtogether, pulling up molten metal from the rivers below. He shaped it into dozens of spikes, then launched them at the Armaments.

The enchanted creatures dodged or blocked most of them, but three spikes found their marks, impaling Armaments through their cores. The constructs froze, their magical animation disrupted.

[Living Armament Defeated x3]

Nine left.

Author Note:

Sorry for this Arc being kindaof long , i am trying to make this arc shorter and interesting while keeping the action entertaining and the story interesting , this arc will finally end within 3 more Chapters , thanks for giving my book a chance and i hope you are enjoying this current arc , you can leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com