Time Looped

Of the sixty-nine rooms in the school, eleven were in the basement. According to Alex, out of them only two had mirrors: the one they had been at and the janitor’s storage room. Given that they’d already dealt with one room, they only had one more to worry about. Despite that, Will felt uneasy.

“How big is the janitor’s place?” Helen turned to Alex.

“Small, sis,” he replied. “I wouldn’t fight in there, anyway.”

“Why not?”

“Place is stacked up with detergent. Miles told me the school buys bulk on the cheap… And he stocked up a month before the loops.”

“That doesn’t sound that too bad,” the jock said. “A month of cleaning is a fucking lot.”

“Bro.” The goofball looked at him. “Miles stocks once per year.”

The answer put things in perspective, making Jace instinctively move a step away from Alex. He was just in the process of making a crude remark when Will caught something from the corner of his eye.

“Stop!” he whispered.

Three quarters of the group froze on the spot. The fourth—Jace—didn’t act on time, ramming into Will like a car in an empty parking spot.

“What the hell?!” he cursed, startled by the suddenness.

Will didn’t react, his attention glued to a faint glint in the nearby darkness.

“Alex,” he began, “you said there were two rooms with mirrors here, right?”

“Sure thing, bro,” the goofball said, though he too was staring in the direction Will was. The difference was that he didn’t have dark vision.

“Then why is there one there?” Will pointed.

Flashlights were pointed in the direction. The room was one of those full of old desks and worn-out rugs, possibly from the principal’s room. The door had been left open, likely for ease of access, since there markedly wasn’t anything valuable there. Undeniably, there also was a mirror placed on one of the doors.

“For real…” Alex managed to say.

“So much for relying on you for anything,” Jace grumbled.

“Seriously, bro. There was no mirror there! For real!”

Will felt inclined to agree. He also had no memory of a mirror being there.

“Well, there’s one there now, muffin boy! Do you think the janitor brought it from—”

“Shit!” Helen said, putting the argument to an abrupt end. Reaching into one of her pockets, she took out the mirror fragment and started tapping it. “Hidden mirrors,” she added after a while. “It told us in the very first message. Use your skill to unlock hidden mirrors. We assumed that meant I’d be able to unlock mirrors that didn’t do anything special, but—”

“—it makes invisible mirrors appear,” Will eagerly finished her sentence. “And since you’ve never been down here before, none of us got to see the hidden mirrors.”

Silence ensued as everyone realized the significance of this discovery. All of a sudden, the tutorial acquired an entirely different dimension. It was no longer just a matter of fighting wolves and goblins that came out from existing mirrors. They’d have to search through every single room in the school to find and unlock all the hidden mirrors.

“That doesn’t change anything,” Will said, glancing at the expressions on his friends’ faces. “We’ll just have to check every room for mirrors. Alex, you’re up.”

Shaking off the surprise, the goofball tossed a mirror piece in front of the new mirror. After he did, Will and Jace vigilantly took out a few desks, creating a bit more space for Helen to enter. It was notable that for some reason the hidden mirror had yet to activate despite having direct line of sight to the girl.

“I’ll drag it out into the corridor,” the girl said. “In case there are more.”

Step by step, she made her way to the mirror. Her headlight lit up the glass surface, revealing it to be completely clouded.

“You got it, sis!” Alex whispered. “Just tap and run.”

Avoiding the mirror piece on the floor, the girl did just that. The mirror’s reaction, though, was completely unexpected.

Before the mist could clear, a tentacle emerged from the mirror’s surface, wrapping around Helen’s hand.

“Helen!” Will drew a knife and threw it at the mirror.

The weapon flew through, disappearing within the mist behind.

A sharp tug attempted to pull the girl in as well. Struggling to maintain her balance, Helen inadvertently stepped into Alex’s trap.

TRAP ACTIVATED

Fortunately, in this case, the effect proved to her benefit. Kept in place by a force greater than any monster, the girl broke free of her initial shock. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed the tentacle with her free hand, in turn, trying to pull it out.

Jace ran forward. Before he could take two steps, Alex shattered a mirror fragment into the floor. Mirror copies of him appeared and rushed forward far faster than Jace could hope to achieve. Half of them leaped into the mirror frame, while the rest surrounded the mirror, stabbing the tentacle with extreme ferocity.

STAB

Surprise attack.

Damage increased by 1000%

Wound inflicted.

A hissing roar ensued. It was at this point that the monster’s attack broke. The tentacle unwrapped from Helen’s hand in an attempt to break loose.

With no intention of letting it escape, the girl grabbed on with both hands, then pulled with all her strength.

Like a fish caught on a hook, the monster struggled a few moments more, only to be hoisted through the room all the way to the corridor.

“Careful!” Will shouted, using his evasion skill to push his friends out of the way just as a massive snake head flew past, slamming the wall behind them.

The group’s combined efforts had bloodied the creature considerably. Several wounds along its body were visible, spewing purple blood. The impact against the wall had also managed to tear a few scales off the cobra-like head. Yet, even out of its element, the creature was far from defeated.

With one violent twist, the creature managed to break free from Helen’s hold. The large head hissed, turning towards Alex. Before the goofball could react, the mouth snapped at him, biting him in half.

I knew we should have gotten the scalpels! Will took his only other knife, then performed a series of jabs into the back of the monster’s head. The blade bounced off the scales, dealing no damage whatsoever.

“Go to hell!” Jace shouted, as he grabbed one of the desks from the corridor and slammed it onto the snake.

The action was impressive from a visual point of view, but school desks weren’t suited for such an enemy, especially when they were in such a poor condition. The legs broke straight off, barely shoving the snake forward.

“Stay back!” Will grabbed hold of Jace, using his rogue’s leap to get as far away from the monster as possible. Neither of them stood a good chance against it at present.

The snake hissed as the prey it had bitten into shattered, turning into fragments of glass. Glowing orange eyes moved about, searching for adequate prey. The only thing they spotted was the tip of a dagger sinking into one of them.

STAB

Surprise attack.

Damage increased by 1000%

Wound inflicted.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Helen shouted from the room.

Free of the effects of Alex’s trap, she grabbed the tentacle-like tail of the snake with both hands. Using the knight’s strength, she pulled it back again, waving it like a whip.

Breaking through rows of neatly arranged desks, the creature slammed into the ground. That wasn’t the girl’s final attack, though. As she had said, the knight’s role was to guard and break things. In this case, Helen intended to break the creature or, failing that, squish it like a bug.

The hissing intensified. One of the creature’s fangs broke off, shattered by the impact of the snake’s head on the concrete floor.

KNIGHT’s BASH

Damage increased by 500%

Bone shattered

Fatal Wound Inflicted

Helen’s right fist struck the back of the monster’s head. It twisted up in a bout of pain and agony, then abruptly went limp, falling back to the floor with a loud flop.

The only noises that occurred in the next ten seconds were the sounds of heavy breathing. No one expected to face a challenge as they had just now. This went beyond goblins, it went beyond wolves, even the massive ones outside the school.

“Is everyone still alive?” Will asked. His right arm was killing him. Dragging Jace to safety had proven to be a lot more painful than he had imagined.

“I’m still here,” Helen replied, the adrenalin within her still causing her fingers to tingle.

“I’m okay, bros,” Alex replied, appearing out of thin air in the corridor. “Lit fight.”

In Will’s book, this was too close for comfort.

“Think there’s more of them?” he asked.

“No,” Helen replied. “I’m pretty sure that was the only one. The Mirror’s turned green.”

And indeed, it was. The murkiness had vanished, replaced by an almost emerald glow that covered the entire glass surface.

“Check the snake!” Alex urged. “There might be loot.”

The idea ranged with the absurd, but since Helen was a hand away from the snake’s corpse. She reached out and placed her arm on the large scales of its head.

The entire corpse melted away, leaving a stylish black dagger with a split blade behind. Its aesthetic wasn’t for everyone, but one had to admit that the characteristics were impressive.

“I got a dagger,” Helen said, looking at the object with mixed feelings. A heavy sword or even a mace would have been preferable. This, as cool as some might think it to be, was as useful as a toothpick.

“For real?” Alex shouted as all three boys rushed from the corridor to take a look.

All of them stared in amazement, witnessing the first loot item.

“Would have been nasty if we didn’t get a reward after killing that fuck.” Jace nodded. “Give it for a moment,” he reached out. “It’s time to see what we got.”

DUAL-FANG DAGGER (loot – tutorial weapon)

A versatile dagger with an extremely sharp edge.

POISON: inflicts poison upon creating a wound

ETERNAL WEAPON: remains after eternity is reset.

“Bro!” Alex said. “Eternal weapon and poison? That’s fire! With that we can GG all the goblins all the time.”

“You take it.” Helen offered it to Will.

Everyone stared at her.

“What?” A faint tinge of pink covered her face, barely visible in the darkness. “It’s not a knight’s weapon. A rogue’s a lot better suited.”

“So’s a thief,” Alex protected, though he didn’t stop Will from taking it. “Dibs on the next one!”

One weapon. That was probably one of the seven that the mirror fragment had mentioned. It was tempting to say that it seemed overpowered, but then again, this was the only item they had seen so far. There was every chance that they’d come across far better weapons. The archer’s weapon, as Will had seen, was a lot more lethal. Could that mean that he had already completed his tutorial? Given that he was skilled back when Daniel was starting, that was a pretty safe bet.

The grip was perfectly suited for Will’s hand. Far more comfortable than any of the knives he’d held. It almost felt like an extension of his hand. Maybe it was suited for his class, after all? The boy moved it around, making a few slashes in the air.

“Nice.” He smiled. “Would have been perfect if it had something to put it in.”

“Stop complaining, you ass,” Jace grumbled. “You can always give it to me if it’s too uncomfortable for you.”

“No chance.”

“We still have one reward left,” Helen said. “Jace, you go for it.”

“Are you sure?” The jock was surprised. “I know it was a group effort and all, but you—”

“Just take it! I got an additional level when I killed the goblins in the bathroom. Besides,” she looked at Alex. “I still don’t trust him entirely.”

Waiting for a few more seconds in case the girl changed her mind, Jace then went up to the mirror and tapped it with the back of his hand.

ROOM REWARD (random)

MASS LOOP INCREASE: current loops are increased by one hour.

A green message appeared.

“Loop increase?” he asked. “Has anyone gotten anything of the sort before?”

“First time I’ve seen it,” Helen admitted. “Looks like there are rewards that benefit all of us.”

“For sure. They’re probably tutorial rewards,” Alex said with absolute conviction. “Our task is to slay the boss, so we get boosted rewards to help us.”

“Muffin boy, you’re full of crap.”

Jace and Alex laughed, and still Will couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that had been plaguing him. They had almost been killed off in the second room since the start of the quest. There was no denying that all rewards so far had been substantially better than what wolves usually provided, but that only increased his fears that the boss and the remaining six weapons might turn out to be more than they could handle.