Ch 92 – Dying Once More

As the five stood in front of the cave entrance with determined eyes, Lute took out a series of potions from his seemingly endless pouch and tossed them to the other four casually. The potion vials hold an assortment of colored liquids ranging from red, green, pink, and even blue.

"What are these blue potions, Lute-san?" Silvy asked as she curiously swirled the blue liquid inside the vial. The blue liquid also glowed a slight blue under the setting sun and under the shade of trees.

Looking at them with a smug smile, Lute responds casually, "Well, Silvy-san, that blue potion is my latest invention yet, a Mana Potion."

"What?!" Bella shouts in disbelief as she looks back at the vial with wide eyes. Nobody in this world's history was able to make liquid mana, the closest thing they could get to a Mana Potion is by absorbing the mana inside Mana Crystals. But it's too slow for practical combat and is only useful for cultivation.

But this potion changes everything because it meant a mage and a fighter can last longer in battles by using their mana-required combat moves such as spells and arts. Not only that, inside this dungeon deprived of mana and their reinforced bodies temporarily losing their mana that physically enhances them, it meant that these mana potions can change the tide of this whole dungeon.

Drinking them, the eyes of the fighters in their group widens as they felt their strength returning back to them at full force causing a chain reaction in their bodies. Quickly, they drank more vials as their strength returns back to full force.

Now both Bella and Silvy are backed to their prime of C Rank physical strength, and Honda returned back to his B Rank strength. Not only that, Lute still has plenty of it as they stored enough mana in their souls till they were filled. Now the mages can cast spells and fighters can cast their arts.

Filling reinvigorated by this new pace, the five stood in front of the dungeon with confident eyes.

"Light Ball," Lute casted as a ball of white light appeared above Lute's staff and went to the middle of their group to illuminate the dark cave they were about to enter.

"Wait! I still have my Storage Ring!" Honda suddenly shouted before they entered the cave. Hastily, he poured mana into his storage ring and pop out new equipment for them to wear. Like high-quality bows for Bella and Silvy, a new staff made of better materials compared to Lute's crappy wooden staff, and even armor for them to wear. With that, they went to wear their new equipment as they felt their strength rising once more.

"Are all of these enchanted?" Lute asked while twirling around his new white cloak while the others fiddled around with their new equipment.

"Yeah, having a large kingdom's support and even nearing the level of an Empire helps in having a buttload of items in store," Honda chuckled as he felt even more reassured than before.

'Perhaps we can even end this dungeon in this second loop!' Honda thought while grabbing his sword tighter. Though right now, he doesn't even mind if he still has to loop as he felt a sense of need to save them all if he needs to, perhaps he was turning into a true hero under the others' influence. Though the other Reincarnates are far from true heroes such as God's Mistake, Louis Crawford.

With new equipment which bolstered their previously pathetic battle strength to many levels higher in a single instance, they took in a deep breath and entered the cave.

"That's where I died, huh?" Silvy muttered as they walked through the cave and they looked at the place where Silvy's scorch marks were seen in the previous loop. But now, it's different, they have strength even higher compared to a normal Shadow and they were confident they can win no matter how many loops they can win.

Turning his head slightly, Honda also noticed Kira's body was now covered in the same white armor compared to before and knew he was already influencing the past, considering Kira only manage to form a white armor on the second day they were in the dungeon.

Continuing their steady but silent march, Kira's voice was suddenly heard by them out of nowhere.

"A Shadow is up ahead," Kira whispered as their eyes widened. The area in front of them was still relatively dark due to the light ball's luminosity being low to save mana, but they should still be able to see the Shadow, but they don't even see a whiff of it.

"[Sound Obstruction]" Lute whispered as they sense a barrier of mana appearing around them to block off from any sounds going through it from the inside, but sound could still enter it from the outside.

Instantly, Honda cocked his shotgun forward and prepared to fire but Kira was even faster as a loud bang was heard. The bullet then whizzes past through the whole group and as the light was fully pointed in front of them, they saw a humanoid shadow suddenly exploding into a black gas cloud and disappearing in mere moments.

"How did you know there was a Shadow, Kira-san?" Silvy asked in a low voice as the sound of the gun's bang was suppressed by Lute's previously casted spell, [Sound Barrier] just before Kira shot a bullet.

"It's related to my ability," Kira responded in a cryptid manner, not revealing anything while still giving a satisfying answer for Silvy, but not so much for Honda.

'There's that ability again. I wonder what it is, I still remember clearly the black edges around Kira's limbs from last time… Can he perhaps sense shadows? But how?' Honda thought as they silently walked through the cave which slowly got wider and wider while they descended down lower and lower.

Lute would have liked to cast an invisibility spell for them to reduce the chances of them being found out, but that would take too much mana to keep up long-term, so he went for the less mana taxing Stealth instead. And he fine-tuned it along the way to further reduce the mana usage of the spell.

"Lute-san, did you create those spells yourself?" Silvy asked curiously while they walked through the cave, killing any Shadow along the way silently and Kira has already discarded his gun along the way, replacing it instead by materializing a white bow out of nowhere that shoots white arrows at ridiculously fast speeds. And his arrow supply was infinite so he was the one who killed most Shadows along the way, and it helped that his arrows naturally dissipate after a while leaving no traces of their existence except the dents produced by them once colliding with a surface.

Silently walking, Lute nods his head as he explained, "Yeah, most spells in the Mages Guild in Peckle City are just useless when you have the theoretical and practical knowledge to create spells on your own. Besides, my spells are a lot better than the ones sold in Mages Guild so I kinda disdain their spells a bit."

"Eh? Then can't Lute-san sell your spells to them?" Silvy asked, intrigued at Lute's decision to withhold his spells.

"I only plan to sell them once I arrive at the Magic Kingdom," Lute suddenly dropped shocking news to the trio out of nowhere.

"The Magic Kingdom?! You're planning to go there, Lute-san?" Bella asked this time, she can't help but feel a bit saddened at Lute's departure even though it hasn't happened yet.

"Mmm, I gotta go there to further my magical studies, though I plan to return in a few years once I finish learning at the Magic Academy," Lute explained as they went to ask more questions to pass time. They got to learn more about each other and what's it like to actually be a hero from Honda.

"Quiet," Kira whispered as their footsteps halted and they went to crouch down on the ground, craning their necks, the light ball around them has already dimmed down along the way to reduce more Shadows noticing them and they all saw a horrifying sight in the distance.

There were already more than a hundred Shadows guarding the large cavern and a giant Shadow was in the distance with scarlet eyes that seems to hold evil itself within them. It silently sat there cross-legged silently while more and more human corpses were given to it, a portion of which was converted into Shadows.

"Is that Yami?" Silvy muttered as they all focused on the scarlet-eyed Shadow with intrigued eyes. But their heart skipped a beat when the scarlet-eyed Shadow suddenly turned its neck towards them within a moment's notice.

"You're finally here!" the Shadow mumbled, its voice echoing through the whole cavern as it stood up. The drastically large shadow trailing on the wall behind Yami captured the attention of Honda and Lute as they felt a sense of danger from it. Estimating its strength, they were all sure that it was an A Rank monster in raw strength.

"Crap! RUN!" Lute shouted as they all turned their heads but suddenly saw Shadows flooding their exit causing them to feel their heart drop down further. Gritting their teeth, Lute dispelled his sound barrier and fully lighted up his light ball to illuminate the whole cavern.

Entering it, the five grouped around each other and noticed that the Shadows around them don't seem to be attacking them, in fact, they were currently standing far away from them and opening a path straight to Yami who looks at them with blaring scarlet eyes.

Its large muscular frame gave off a threatening aura but Honda felt only a faint amount of fear considering he fought against demons and dragons before. Tightening his grip around his sword, he takes in a deep breath and prepared to fight.

"Kukuku, to think humans would get ahold of mana inside this dungeon. How intriguing it truly is!" Yami chuckled as he stood up, waving his hand, a shadowy scythe manifested as his eyes squinted.

"Oh river of time, push me forward like a raging river, [Time Acceleration]" Honda muttered.

"[Haste], [Strength], [Resistance], [Aegis]" Instantly, four spells were casted by Lute as the others prepared for a fierce fight.

Without speaking another word, Yami crouched down and rushed toward them at a ridiculously fast pace. But Honda was able to keep up with the buffs given to him as he swung his sword forwards and halted Yami's scythe from decapitating them.

"[Bind!]" Chains of mana then appeared to grab ahold of Yami's four limbs but Yami just phases through them in a few seconds, but it brought enough time as Kira appeared right behind Yami and stabbed his white sword to the ground. But unexpectedly, the drastically large shadow of Yami suddenly formed a hole under the place Honda was about to stab towards and managed to avoid his fatal blow while retaliating, and a new pair of arms suddenly sprouts from his back to grab Kira's neck who only looks at Yami with apathetic eyes.

"NOW!" Lute shouted out of nowhere as Yami felt a dangerous presence erupt from Kira and he felt his body halting in place, a thick killing intent emerged from Kira all directed towards Yami that even a dragon would halt in place for a few seconds from feeling this amount of killing intent.

"[Tempest Arrow!]" both Bella and Silvy shouted as they pulled back their bowstring and watched their arrow get encapsulated in a green light, releasing their hold, the arrow shoot forwards and enlarge as the wind around it formed a vortex to increase its power.

"[Mana Bullet!]"

Instantly, three attacks rush towards Yami's shadow and they all expected them to win. But unexpectedly, Yami lets out a grunt as the impact inflicted by the three attacks shocks him awake from the killing intent and snaps Kira's head hastily causing their eyes to widen.

"HOW?!" Honda shouted in disbelief as he felt the force of the scythe increase further and he clearly saw the magic attacks of the trio not working.

"YAMI'S IMMUNE TO MAGIC! JUST SHOOT HIM WITH THE GUN!" Lute shouted as he cocked his gun but out of nowhere, Yami appeared in front of him and swung his scythe in a large arc, decapitating his head as Honda felt a rush of despair, but he held on and cocked his shotgun towards it.

But to no avail, Yami was just too fast as he blitz from one place to another and killed both Silvy and Bella. So left with no choice, he urges for it to kill him, "Come on! Kill me!"

"Kukuku, I know you can loop, Honda. So I can just simply-" Before Yami can even finish what he was saying, Honda shoots bullet after bullet at Yami and he simply tanks through them, but the bullets shoot straight to his eye so he closed his eyelids instinctively, a detail noticed by Honda as he knew the true bodies of the Shadows were on the ground, so why does Yami need to closed his eyelids.

But the deed was already done, by the time Yami opened his eyes, he saw Honda was impaled by the arms of one of his Shadows causing him to click his tongue.

"Tch, it seems like the worst caste scenario is indeed true, Honda can get abilities by being killed," Yami clicked his tongue as his experience controlling other Shadows was too shallow, so he wasn't able to stop Honda from plunging a Shadow's arm into his head and killing himself.

And so, Honda woke up once more in the dark void with a raised eyebrow but also wore a wide grin as appearing inside this dark void indicates his forceful killing-self-through-others-suicide worked successfully.

"Now, what useful ability would I get next?" Honda muttered as he left the questions for later.

AN: This is 2345 words, you're welcome.

Hard is writing, power stones you shall give.

(July 18, 2022 – 236th day of writing)