[Labyrinth of Shadows]

"Ugh. I hate the dark," Clara said as she looked around the dark catacombs surrounding us. We brought out some torches and lit them with some fire spells so that we would have light. "Which way, Hugo?" Clara asked.

"Down here," Hugo said as he pointed down the left corridor. I knew that was the safest route because many other adventurers had marked it out, "They already marked this one, so it's pretty safe."

"We're only going to hunt for twelve hours and then we'll leave with whatever we get." Johnny said to the group, "Everything gotten will be shared equally, so there is no need to get greedy while hunting." Johnny looked us all over and I was a little surprised by how serious he sounded. I thought that he was just a happy-go-lucky person, but it seems he can be serious when he needs to be.

"Let's get in formation. Hugo and Laura will be behind. Mark and I are the heavy hitters, so we'll be in front. Jason and Clara will be in the middle. Two of you can provide support for us."

The group went into formation and we started moving down the marked lane. The first monster that we saw was a large [Shadow Spider] that was crawling along the wall. I felt my body shiver as I saw it but I was able to kill that feeling extremely fast. I really hated spiders. I already knew that there would be spiders in this labyrinth, but I still felt funny once I saw it.

[The Heart of Darkness is calling you a scaredy cat]

[The Heart of Darkness is laughing at you]

"Clara!" Johnny shouted, "Block its exit!"

Clara immediately activated [Earthen Bulwark - F] and a wall of earth rose from the side and blocked the right side of the cave. The spider now only had one path to move through and Johnny and Mark achieved their fire skills and took care of it easily. The spider was burnt to a crisp and it was left smoking on the floor.

The group moved quickly and Laura came from behind me and cut up the spider before taking a crystal from inside the body. Those were another type of mana crystals that only formed in beasts that were found in dungeons. These mana crystals were far more precious than Quartz because they contained mana and they can be used to craft artifacts and weapons with various magic attributes. If we sell even one of those crystals, we should get at least fifteen bronze coins.

I couldn't help but the impressed because of how well they were hunting. But there was no time to rest because some other spiders started to come down the hall as well.

We quickly got back in formation and we started to hunt the spiders using that same technique. Clara would force the spiders into a tight space using her earth magic and either Johnny or Mark would burn the spiders and then Laura would cut them up and take out the stone we needed.

As time went on, I thought that I wouldn't even need to do anything, but just as I thought that, Mark made a mistake. His fire spell spluttered and dissipated in the middle of his casting and I realized that he was out of mana. The spider that he was about to burn was already very close and we could see that it would stab Clara with one of its legs in the next moment.

I drew my sword and dashed forward before splitting the spider from end to end easily. I then turned on Mark with a frown, "Get back. If your mana is low then you should have said something. Do you want to kill everyone here?" Mark looked annoyed by what I said but he didn't argue and he moved back and allowed me to take his place in front. I spoke to Johnny while staring at the many spiders coming our way. They were all coming at us at the same time now that our formation was broken "How much mana do you have left?"

"About thirty percent," Johnny answered after a quick look at his system tab.

"Do you have any AOE* skills that can disorient them?" I asked as I immediately came up with a plan, "Anything will be fine as long as it causes chaos." Johnny nodded and I told him to cast it as I ran towards the spiders.

Johnny cast the AOE spell [Ring of Fire] and it spread across the entire cave and slammed into every spider in the cave. The spiders all screeched in pain and started to scramble around in confusion and I used that to my advantage and jumped into their midst.

My sword blurred in the dark as I began to cut every single spider around me to pieces. I wasn't stronger than all these spiders and I knew that if a single one of them caught me then that was the end for me. But I have been fighting for more than twenty years before I came back to the past. All the experiences from those fights were still with me and I knew how to utilize my mana in the most efficient way that would allow me to cause as much damage as possible.

[You have directed Magic Power to your arms]

I turned my sword around and stabbed a spider that was close to me before dragging my sword out and using it to split another spider in half. A [Shadow Spider] shot a web at me but I caught the web and activated [Pyroclasm].

The black fire traveled along the web and engulfed the spider, the spider screamed and screeched as it started to crawl around in pain. I watched as that spider slammed into another spider and spread the flames to that one and then they just kept spreading the flames to more and more of them. The black fire kept burning them until they stopped moving.

Once I was sure that none of them were going to move again, I checked myself to see if I had any injuries. There were some scars on my armor from the spiders and I had a cut along my forearm, but other than that, I was okay.

[You have killed thirteen [Shadow Spiders]]

[Strength +2]

[Agility +2]

[Magic Control (Current Progress – 0.8%)]

[The Heart of Darkness is mildly impressed by your use of [Pyroclasm] and apologizes for laughing at you]

'Of course, I won't forgive you,' I thought once I saw the last prompt, 'Just wait till we get a light skill. I'll use it all the time just to piss you off.'

[The Heart of Darkness is calling you a big baby]

I stared at the new prompt in disbelief and I wondered if it was possible to make the Heart of Darkness shut up somehow. The Heart was a lot more talkative in this life than in my previous one. Is it because it knows that this is my second life so it feels closer to me? I barely spoke to the heart in my last life unless it was necessary.

"Wow, that was awesome!" Johnny shouted as he ran up to me and tried to put his hands on my shoulders. I dodged him and he caught air, but just like always, he didn't even seem to notice, "You were like 'Woosh! Woosh!' and the spiders didn't stand a chance! I had no idea you could fight so well!"

"Thanks," I said before turning to Laura and raising my arm for her to see the cut, "Laura, can you come to take a look at this injury?"

Laura quickly came towards me and she gasped when she saw the deep gash along my forearm. It wasn't that serious as far as I was concerned, and if I was alone, then I would have just wrapped it up in some cloth and continued fighting. But there was a lot of blood leaking out and I had a healer right here, so why not use her?

Laura activated two spells at the same time. She first used [Soothing Touch - F] to reduce the pain from the wound and then she used [Mend Wound - F] to begin closing up the injury.

"Uh… hey," someone said from beside me and I turned to see Clara looking away from me with a frown on her face. Johnny was standing behind her and he nudged her forward when she didn't say anything for some time. Clara glared at him before she finally looked back at me with another frown, "Thanks for saving my life or whatever," She said, "I appreciate it."

I scoffed at the apology and Clara's face reddened and she took a step towards me, "Now look here - !"

"Wow, that was a great apology, Clara!" Johnny said while trying to quickly defuse the situation. Clara looked like she was about to say something insulting to me, but when Johnny intervened, she huffed and walked away.