The next day, Luke was already inside the solitary cell in the Abyss Dungeon. Darkness surrounded him and he could not see anything at all. However, a tattoo of a faint pearl was on his palm and within, He could sense the sleeping five year old daughter of Melinda.
Luke continued blankly practicing the first control exercise and to his surprise, he finally crossed the threshold of average proficiency. When he felt his mentality damaged, he would pop a pill and heal his mind.
"What a curious lad... you came to the dungeon to practice control exercises? It is true that practicing control here leads to a somewhat rapid improvement. What did you do to land up here?" A gravelly voice suddenly spoke.
"I killed a student." Luke calmly replied.
"Haha, violent from a young age, I like it." The gravelly voice laughed. "Back in my day..." Just as he was about to talk, his voice trailed off.
Luke didn't care, and continued to practice to the extreme.
"Lad, your mind is damaged. Want me to heal you? I can help you out if you agree to my one request." The gravelly voice spoke with some excitement.
"Oh, what request?" Luke asked.
"Allow me one drop of your blood. It is such a simple and small request." The gravelly voice said.
Luke smiled and popped a pill. His mind immediately healed.
The gravelly voice started grating. "Lad, how many of those rank 4 pills do you have? Your father is an Alchemist master?" He grumbled in frustration.
Luke laughed. He suddenly spoke with closed eyes. "Old man, your previous trade was too boring. Instead let us have a bet. We will guess each others names. The one who guesses correctly can get to order the other to do any one thing. You can ask for my blood if you win."
After hearing about such a carrot, the gravelly old voice laughed. Inwardly he thought. "Fool! I have access to the prisoners list and their basic details. Just by knowing that you have access to the pills I can make a guess, but you will never know my name!"
"Let's bet as you said. Make a contract oath!" The gravelly voice said with excitement.
After making the oath, the two began guessing each other's names. The gravelly voice was explaining his guesses with logic.
"Twimmer Grumm. His father is a Grade 5 alchemist and was put in for murder. You are him!" The gravelly voice said.
Luke shook his head. "Your guess is incorrect." However, inwards he immediately realized that the old man had access to the prisoners details. Luckily he was captured for 'conspiracy', since he didn't directly murder anyone.
"How is this possible? Liar!" The gravelly voice screamed. However, Luke reminded him that they had taken the oath and it was impossible for him to deny his identity if exposed.
It was Luke's turn to guess, but he made some random false guess and failed. His plan was to find out more about other criminals.
"Joaquin Mazard! You were arrested for murder of an alchemist and stealing his treasure!" The gravelly voice said after failing to guess four times in a row. He was sure he finally found how this man tricked him by using the pills.
Luke smiled and shook his head. "Incorrect. It is my turn to guess."
He then turned to the wall and a cruel winning smile appeared on his face. "Javier Bardoom."
Boom!
Immediately, the gravelly voice, Javier Bardoom screamed in disbelief! "How is it possible? Bastard! You already knew my name and tricked me! No, no, no! I don't agree to this bet!" Javier screamed, however, a huge pressure descended on him and forced him to accept reality.
"Bastard! Swindler!" Javier Bardoom yelled in dismay.
Luke laughed. "You were trying to swindle me earlier, aren't you a hypocrite? We agreed on a bet fair and square under an oath of mana. You lost."
Javier Bardoom growled. However, he was constricted by the oath he had just made in excitement some time earlier.
Luke stopped laughing and looked at Javier. "You will answer all my questions." He said with unquestionable authority, for he knew that the mana would bind Javier.
"Let's start from the beginning."
...
The day of the celestial equinox had arrived. Just like before, the Space of the Abyss Dungeon began disintegrating. However, just before Luke was about to turn into a stream of particles, time froze over.
Luke's eyesight faded to black, but in an instant, he woke up from sleep. He was back at home, back in time, thirty days before the celestial equinox.
"Another day, another loop." Luke said, before he slapped a few objects off the table to cause a loud crash in his room. Just before the world ended, he had exhausted himself by practicing control exercises to the point of mind damage.
At this moment, his face was extremely pale and he appeared very muddle headed and dazed. Alex appeared in his room in panic and saw Luke who looked pale as a sheet.
"Luke, are you alright? You look terrible, we need to go to the doctor!"