Second Draft - Reincarnated Into a Game in Impossible Mode

The sound of steady footsteps echoed back and forth in the cave, making the already dark atmosphere even more gloomy.

The deeper they went, the farther apart the torches on the wall became. As a result, the dark spaces grew more numerous and terrifyingly large. In the game, Ryoshu could adjust the lighting... but here, there was nothing similar to settings.

'If there were, I would have already adjusted it to the brightest level possible...'

But this time, Ryoshu successfully utilized 100% of his foolish brain. He took a torch from the wall and carried it with him to feel less afraid.

"I should have done this from the beginning. How embarrassing... fortunately, no one saw it." - Ryoshu covered his face with his remaining arm while Fumiya was still floating around him. It looked at him as if it was giggling.

At least that's what he thought. His eyes tried to avoid his best friend and looked to another corner of the cave. Fumiya then climbed onto Ryoshu's head, looking quite tired.

After walking a bit further, he suddenly encountered the first obstacle - the first slime monster.

Ryoshu immediately held his breath and signaled for the weapon soul on his head to transform into a bow. A pure white bow with golden yellow intricate patterns gradually formed on his two arms, which were already in position to shoot.

Right after that, an arrow appeared as the bowstring was being pulled taut. All of Ryoshu's actions were performed under the influence of the Stealth ability of the brilliant white mask. Last time, he had tested it with that F-rank Slime, so he knew that the Stealth mask could completely conceal sound as well.

And Ryoshu didn't want his target to hear... even the slightest sound. Because the cave was already naturally echoing.

The reason he pulled the bowstring first and then inserted the arrow was due to his previous training. Ryoshu found that inserting the arrow this way would be much quicker and quieter than putting the arrow in first and then pulling.

After preparations were complete, he quickly crouched down. Ryoshu then stealthily approached the monster while maintaining a sufficient distance from it.

Getting closer, he began to observe the Slime more carefully. Ryoshu could confirm that this species was probably a non-elemental Slime based on its small size and pale bluish-white color.

'So... it's definitely F-rank... if the game still maintains most of the mechanics from the old version.'

Monsters in the challenges always start at F- and increase as you go deeper. For example, in this C-level Temple, only the Boss is C-rank, D-rank monsters would be Elite monsters, and monsters below E-rank would be common monsters and make up the majority of the challenge.

But common monsters have a huge advantage, which is their number and herd mentality. And they become even more terrifying when there's a monster leading them. Those leader monsters are called Elite monsters.

They possess formidable strength and are much more special than common monsters. Additionally, an Elite monster always has the ability to call monsters under its command from a very wide distance. And as mentioned before, the number of monsters can clearly affect the outcome of a battle.

Therefore, Elite monsters can often be considered mini-bosses... although that's not entirely true. Because a mini-boss has many special moves that don't necessarily include the ability to summon herds and has more phases.

'If I encounter a large herd of Slimes, I'll have to use elemental reaction... or if that's not available... then I'll probably have to split them up to make them easier to defeat.'

Ryoshu took a breath and focused on his shooting stance. Though it seemed like a long time in position, this time he entered the stance even more smoothly than before.

'Maybe it's because my Adaptability stat is high, so I can control my body more easily...? Or maybe it's also due to increased Strength and Agility stats... so the bow isn't as heavy as before...' - Ryoshu thought about the factors affecting his improvement rate but quickly dismissed it.

Calmly adjusting his aim, but the longer he held it, the more his hands trembled. So he aimed at the tiny Slime and immediately released the arrow.

But because Ryoshu's hands were too slippery, it caused the arrow to deviate slightly to the right.

Clang!

The arrow grazed past the slime monster. Then it struck straight into the ground, creating a piercing sound.

This caused the dazed Slime to suddenly become panicked.

Strangely enough, the person more frightened than anyone was the one who had missed the shot.

The monster turned toward the direction of the arrow and charged at it.

'Stay calm... I can shoot again.'

Ryoshu's heart began to race as the monster rushed toward him.

It came at him faster and faster. He tried to stay calm by breathing evenly and getting into position again.

Whoosh.

The arrow flew in a straight line. It hit right at the core of the slime.

[You have killed a normal F-rank Slime!]

Immediately after, the Slime exploded into a puddle of water as usual. But this time, it dropped something bright like a light stone.

Ryoshu's hands were drenched in sweat as if he had just taken a bath. Not because of fear but because he was excited. That stone contained a lot of pure Mana, and its official name was Magic Crystal.

It was something many people would willingly buy at quite a high price. However, at F- rank, it could only be sold for 1 RC per piece.

'Well, this will appear more in the Temple than when eliminating them outside the temple.'

Because inside the Temple, the dense Mana concentration will increase the drop rate of Magic Crystals from monsters after elimination. Outside, the rate would only be 10%, but inside, it would rise to about 50% for common monsters, 70% for Elite monsters, and 100% for the final boss.

Besides selling them, Ryoshu could do many other things. But that wasn't a priority now when time was still passing very quickly.

Ryoshu placed them in his space ring and continued his journey.

Along the way, Ryoshu encountered and eliminated several F-rank monsters using that method. The distance between the two sides wasn't as significant as when he battled that E-rank Slime.

As in the previous version of the game, near the first half of the path, only one Slime appeared at a time. So he took advantage of that and just shot them from afar. Therefore, they couldn't get close enough to attack him.

In addition, thanks to his excellent memory, the more Ryoshu shot, the faster his archery skills improved. It felt as if archery was something he had practiced for months.

'But my stats are still quite low... so if I get attacked or have to engage in close combat now, I'll definitely die instantly.'

Since they couldn't one-hit kill Ryoshu, the Death Sense skill wouldn't activate until he was near death.

Although the newly acquired skill - Time Bullet - could compensate for Death Sense. But he could only use it three times within an hour.

So if Ryoshu became overconfident, it would lead him to death quite quickly. Because soon, E-rank or D-rank Slimes would start appearing in the latter half, and they would come in herds instead of standing alone.

Ryoshu was more aware than ever of the truth that he still wasn't strong at all, so he moved and observed more carefully than ever before.

At a fork in the road, he chose to go to the right. Deep inside that passage was a trail leading to a dense garden. Ryoshu took quite some time to enter because he couldn't see the path to where he wanted to go.

Ryoshu walked a bit longer, and it began to appear larger and larger in his sight. Standing still in the center was a marble house with moss covering the walls.

Ryoshu almost didn't recognize that this was the place he needed to enter. His hand rested on the rusty doorknob, which had changed to a charred brownish-black color.

He tried to open the door, but it seemed quite stuck.

'So I have to break it... this hasn't changed compared to the computer version...' - Ryoshu thought about the similarities between the two games.

"So far, almost everything hasn't changed much in terms of gameplay or design. Except... this gate opened earlier than usual... and the appearance of that old blacksmith Enomoto... Why could I meet them at this pre-game stage?"

And perhaps the strangest thing he just realized was:

"Why wasn't I summoned at the beginning of the game?"

There were too many strange things that couldn't be answered. The more Ryoshu explored, the more complicated everything became.

He let out a long sigh.

Then Ryoshu kicked the door hard; the door hinges, receiving too much force, immediately fell off. And then the door also fell onto the wooden floor, accidentally collapsing the wooden beam under the floor.

Ryoshu stepped over it and looked inside the house. A dusty wooden room appeared before his eyes. The room smelled damp and moldy as if it had been situated here for hundreds of years. Dust flew all over the room, and some particles made their way to him.

Cough, cough.

Ryoshu turned outside the door and coughed violently. His tears also involuntarily flowed due to coughing too much.

Going back in, he walked around the house and found some ancient books. Ryoshu found "The Encyclopedia of Mana" and "All About Human History" to be perhaps the most interesting ones. He took them along with some other old books.

Upstairs, he found a wooden chest that didn't look very fancy. He guessed right away that this was the most common type of chest but still opened it.

A potion bottle with a pink-purple liquid inside appeared in his hand.

"Jackpot... Appraisal!" - Ryoshu immediately became excited when he saw that potion bottle.

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[Charisma Enhancement Potion] (D) 

Description: Created by an anonymous alchemist. For ugly people. 

-Beautifying 

After consumption, immediately increases "Charisma" permanently by 1.5 stat points. And afterward, each day, the "Charisma" stat will increase by 0.1 stat points until it reaches 30.

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"This is exactly what I need... With this, I'll be less discriminated against! Although the potion is directly calling me..." - Ryoshu was quite upset when reading the description of the potion he had just found.

But he ignored that and raised the potion bottle up as if showing it to someone.

'I've always wanted to try holding up an item like this... it seems more awkward than I thought...'

Fortunately, there was only one judge here. That was Fumiya, who had come out from somewhere unknown.

"How did you get out? I don't remember summoning you."

But it seemed like it didn't hear anything and just looked at the potion bottle in his hand with excitement.

'Maybe it's wondering why I'm excited about finding this potion.'

This was one of the quite rare items. On the market, it would cost thousands of RC. If the quality were higher, the price could go up to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands.

"Alright, since you're out, watch me drink this. Then you'll understand." - Ryoshu licked his lips and without hesitation, opened the potion bottle.

But after trying repeatedly, the potion bottle wouldn't open, so he became a bit irritated and used more force. But using more force still had no effect.

'Why is that...? Normally in challenges, I could drink it?'

However, Ryoshu momentarily forgot an important detail. In challenges with increased difficulty, he also wouldn't be able to use stat-enhancing potions, health recovery potions, or antidote potions...

Besides not being able to escape, there were quite a few other things banned or restricted to make the challenge harder. But they weren't very important, so he completely forgot.

"Well... after escaping from here, I'll drink it later." - Ryoshu stored it in his space ring with regret.

He looked at where the pile of sand had disappeared. It had gone out to the balcony sometime earlier and was enjoying the view.

"... I'll show you next time." - Ryoshu sighed with a bit of disappointment.

But afterward, Ryoshu's lips curled up while observing the child playing. Fumiya came into the room and led him out to the balcony.

"H-hey! Calm down! How are you so strong?"

Ryoshu was helpless against his weapon soul's childishness and had to enjoy the view with it.

----0w0----

After leaving that abandoned house, he didn't forget to look back one last time. In the previous version, no Player had found its owner yet. And it was just one of the many, many secrets of this Rainfall Disorder game.

'I'll have to come back to this place later to learn more.'

Ryoshu turned his face toward the dense garden in front of the house that he had struggled through earlier. And this time, he also spent quite a lot of time, no less than the previous time. But this time, Fumiya also helped, so it was a bit less difficult.

The sound of plants being parted grew quieter. After that, the silent atmosphere was returned to the hundred-year-old house once more.