Demon Lord's Reincarnation

It has been over an hour now and there was no sign of the twenty. While they were waiting, Ren told Arthur to stand underneath the waterfall and swing his dagger upstream. He needed to this while trying to make his mana burst outwards, cutting the waterfall in half. He would not be allowed to stop until he was able to do it. Unlike the last task, this one didn't have a time limit.

'Well, the only way he's going to be able to cut that waterfall in half is if he could somehow utilize all of his mana into one burst. He doesn't really need to finish this test, I just want to see where his limits lay.'

While Arthur was being bombarded by the continuous waterfall, Ren was consolidating his accumulated mana. Ever since his battle with Nyarlom his mana had once again increased. It was now getting closer and closer to the time when he was at his peak. The absurd speed of his mana growth was shocking him. Not only that even his physical body was growing beyond what the normal human body was supposed to achieve. Even without using mana or any other form of energy Ren could lift boulders thrice his size.

'If I had this kind of ability in my last life, then every battle would've been too boring. Yet now that I have it in this life, it doesn't feel enough to face the opponent that I'm supposed to face... How wonderful, how truly enjoyable!'

Ren could feel his blood boiling as he thought about his future battle against the ORIGIN. That would be the ultimate battle, a battle that would be the most important battle of all time. A battle against the very creator of everything.

'How do you fight a nearly omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being? The answer is it's impossible. Yet despite knowing that the original incarnation the first hero, the greatest of humanity chose to fight. I can only say as expected of the origin of myself.'

As Ren was getting even more excited he finally sensed the group of twenty. They were somewhere near. Ren quickly moved away and appeared at the spot where the twenty were located.

When he arrived he saw that half of them were wounded. It was obvious that they had faced some monsters on the way. If they weren't wearing the chainmail he had given them some of them should already be dead. They were now looking around trying to find Ren and Arthur, so to catch their attention Ren clapped his hands.

When they heard the sound of clapping the twenty immediately form five circles, their backs against each other. Ren was truly surprised to see them do that.

'They're actually better than I thought they would be.'

"Congratulations everyone, you were all able to get through the first part of training without getting killed. Who knew that you guys would actually figure out the hidden way to survive, which is to work together. If you guys treated this as a contest and dashed all the way here without caring for one another then most of you would have been dead. I'm actually satisfied with all of your performances."

When the twenty heard what Ren said they felt relieved. It was a good thing that they had listened to that guy at the beginning and grouped together. As the twenty were feeling relieved, Ren continued to speak.

"Unfortunately you guys missed the one-hour mark. So since all of you arrived at the same time, all of you will run back to the Northern wall of the city and then run back here. This time there's no time limit, so no need to rush. Also don't bother cheating, since I can sense if you actually did what I told you to do. Once you guys are done running I will allow you to eat a good meal. So all of you better get going now."

The twenty looked at each other and sighed before they started running back towards the Northern Wall.

...

It took them an entire three hours to return. When they returned they were all sweaty and panting heavily. Ren once again congratulated them and healed their wounds. Ren then guided the twenty to the place near the waterfall. Once they were there, Ren summoned a table he stored into his shadow. On top of that table were plates filled with a mountain of meat and some roasted bugs.

"Everyone should sit down like this and start eating. You should eat every last piece. Anyone who pukes or falls to the ground will have another session of running back to the city."

Ren did an air chair squat and started eating. The others had no choice but to do it too despite being exhausted. No one wanted to run back to the city again. So they did as they were told and did an air chair squat. The moment they did so they could feel their thighs burning, still, they endured, since this wasn't as dangerous as running back to the capital.

When the twenty stared at their plates they were overwhelmed by the staggering amount of meat. Not only that but there were bugs in there as well, which disgusted some, there were even some of them that wanted to puke just thinking about eating the bugs. Still, they all held back on puking since if they did that they would need to start running again.

Most of the twenty started eating the meat first, while the others ate both the meat and bugs at the same time. After a while, the twenty finally felt their stomachs aching a bit but seeing as they weren't even halfway done they needed to persevere.

Ren had finished eating his meal and looked at the twenty. He found it quite funny to see their trembling legs trying their hardest to stay up. It was after a few more minutes the first loser came to be. Unable to continue squatting one of the twenty fell on his butt.

"Alright, since you fail you know what you need to do, right?" The man that fell on his butt looked at Ren as if he were the scariest monster of all and reluctantly nodded his head as he stood up wobbling.

"Then go already, or do you want me to train you in some other way?" When the man saw Ren's widening smile he forced himself to move faster. Seeing the fate that befell one of their own the others tried harder to stay up while eating.

...

In the end, only five of the twenty were able to finish their meal while doing air chair squats. Ren was rather impressed by their feat.

"Alright then, the five of you will proceed to the next phase of the training, but before that, I would like to know how old each one of you is. So to start from right to left tell me your ages."

"21"

"18"

"25"

"29"

"27"

"I see, it's as I expected. Unfortunately for you guys, you're all too old to receive mana training. Even if you do train your mana at this point, it won't amount too much unless you are a once in a millennia talent. Still, do not be disheartened, I have another way to make you guys stronger. Unlike mana which needs inborn gifts and talents to grow stronger, the form of energy I'm about to teach you, only needs you to put in your best effort. The more effort you put in the more rewards you gain."

Ren made a fist with his right hand and enveloped it with Spirit Aura. Ren then punched forward releasing a tiny bit of his Spirit Aura. The Spirit Aura that was released hit the base of the mountain and formed a huge crack.

"That was Spirit Aura, it is the energy that is birthed from one's hard work. As long as you work hard enough you might one day reach my level. So do you guys want to learn it?"

"YES!" As the five of them shouted their answer in unison, some of them were crying. These people who had once dreamt of becoming stronger like the high mages have lost that dream as they grew older. The dream of becoming adventurers, heroes, or mighty warriors that roam the land was once again rekindled.

"Now that's what I want to hear. For starters, before I teach you how to sense Spirit Aura, we must first make your body a suitable vessel to be able to release the hidden Spirit Aura. So for now I want you guys to draw your swords and begin to swing it for at least five hundred times."

This time the five no longer hesitated and began swinging their swords with gusto. When the others came back from their run, they were surprised to see the five swinging their swords like mad. Their motivation seems to be increasing with each swing, the fifteen that returned couldn't understand what had happened, but they knew the next thing they were going to do was swing their swords.

When the fifteen who were feeling tired heard the same speech Ren gave the five, they once again felt extremely motivated. Despite being so tired that they could fall at any second, they still grabbed their swords and swung them.

"This is the proper form, you guys better do it this way." Ren showed them a normal forward swing. The twenty nodded their heads as they tried to imitate what Ren did. After teaching them what they needed to do Ren looked at his disciple Arthur who swinging his daggers at the waterfall.

Ren was rather surprised that Arthur was now able to cut a portion of the waterfall. 'This kid's potential is beyond what I imagined, how interesting.'