Time Looped

“Switch!” Will shouted as another wolf got affected by Alex’s trap.

Two of them had been killed so far, leaving Jace and the goofball to earn their levels. The coordination within the group still left a lot to be desired even if it had substantially improved since last time. Each time a wolf would be killed, the girl would take advantage of the strength the knight class provided her and toss it away, freeing space for the next to be ensnared by the thief’s trap. The only issue was that not every person could kill their target fast enough.

“Die, damn it!” Jace kept on bashing the large wolf with his spiked club.

The weapon, although visually impressive, had combined the worst elements of all weapons it wanted to copy. It lacked the strength to kill off the creature with one bash, the nails were too shallow to stab through the thick hide, and there was no slicing potential to speak of.

A second wolf emerged from the mirror, pushing the first away. Instinctively, Helen slammed its front paw, breaking it on the spot. Alex quickly joined in, stabbing the wounded creature in the throat. Once that was done, they stepped to the side, leaving the jock to keep on hitting the creature for a quarter of a minute more until the wolf finally collapsed lifelessly on the floor.

“Fuck!” Jace threw the weapon in anger. “Stupid crap!”

“For real, bro.” Alex shook his head. “Big oof. You were better with a knife.”

“Shut it, muffin boy!”

“It’s about strength.” Helen calmly made her way through the giant wolf corpses to where the spiked bat had ended up. “You’re no longer what you were. The class gives everything, and a crafter just isn’t suited for this.”

She picked the weapon up, then struck the head of a nearby corpse. A loud cracking sound proved her point.

“You’re good at making stuff now,” she looked at him.

The jock clenched his fists. After years of living like a jock, the role shift felt unnatural. He was used to being strong, to the point he’d let his strength win him most of his arguments. With one touch of the mirror, that huge advantage he’d worked on developing for years had completely disappeared.

To a certain degree, Will could empathize. It had taken him a while to get used to the new state of fragility. Things that he’d done without thinking now caused considerable pain.

One by one, everyone tapped the mirror, boosting their level by one. Then, it was time for the reward.

“You take it,” Will told Jace as the mirror acquired the familiar green glint. “It’s your turn from last time.”

“With my luck, it’ll probably be total shit.”

The jock placed his left palm on the mirror.

WOLF PACK REWARD (random)

LIGHTNING REFLEXES: reaction speed is five times faster.

“Bro!” Alex exclaimed, envious. “That’s lit!”

“Looks like it’s not total crap.” Jace let out a smile. “For once.”

Although the reward wasn’t bad, Will had hoped they’d get a loop extension. In terms of exploration, that provided the best benefit. Hopefully, one of the next rewards would grant them that.

“Cool,” he said. “We go for the storage next.”

“Why not the dagger?” Alex looked at him.

“Goblins boost Helen’s level,” Will said firmly. “The more levels she has, the better for any hidden mirror.”

The explanation sounded logical, and the team went into the janitor’s storage room to deal with the second threat on the floor. The fight felt surprisingly easy. At no time did the horde of goblins pouring out of the small mirror present a challenge. Between thief traps, knight powers, and the occasional thrown scalpel by Will, the creatures never stood a chance.

“Any loot?” Jace asked from the corridor.

“Hold on!” Helem shouted as she checked the goblin corpses she hadn’t killed.

The creatures kept their gear and weapons, but just like the wolves, those would gradually become transparent and fade away.

“Nothing,” the girl said.

“Maybe it only works on elites,” Will suggested. Statistically, they should have gotten something by now. “Maybe tutorial goblins don’t count.”

“Hold on. You mean the keyholder thing isn’t just for the tutorial?” Jace asked.

“Or maybe that means that only Helen can use the fragment.” Will wondered out loud. “Let’s just get the dagger and move to the first floor.”

Mentally, everyone prepared. This was going to be their first big test. Will felt slightly anxious, but also confident enough that they’d do better. Two loops ago, the monsters had the element of surprise on their side. Now, everyone was prepared and used to working together.

However, upon entering the room in question, the group experienced their first major surprise.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Jace explained.

The others were no different. Will himself kept staring blankly at the wall, his mind refusing to accept the obvious: the mirror wasn’t there.

“It was here, right?” Jace asked, moving closer to the spot on the wall it had been attached to.

Everything else—desks, rugs, and the occasional box of old school materials—was there exactly as they remembered it to be. Only the mirror was missing.

“Maybe it changes rooms,” Alex rushed out to search the other rooms. He was soon followed by Jace. Will, on the other hand, refused to move, as if a part of him was missing.

There was no reason for him to feel this way. Two loops ago, none of them had any idea about the dagger and elite battles. True, the fragment had mentioned it, but the hints were nothing more than text in a mirror. Also, it very well might be like Alex had said—the elites could change location at random. It was inevitable that they would stumble upon it again… or would they? Could it be that with their failure during the last search, they had lost one of the seven weapons, making their fight against the boss all that much more difficult?

“There’ll be other weapons.” Helen went up to Will. “We’ll still get one of each.”

“It’s not that,” Will lied. “I just… feel different.”

“Look, it’s not easy getting used to eternity, let alone leading a band of misfits,” the girl continued. “For someone who’s barely in the triple digits, you’ve done really well. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be talking to the goofball, and Jace would have remained an ordinary jock.”

It was impossible to notice that the girl didn’t compare him to Daniel. Whatever Helen’s thoughts about Will were, he still couldn’t compare to the first rogue. That, too, gave the boy an unpleasant feeling inside.

“I’ll go help the others check the rooms,” he said abruptly.

Between Alex running between rooms at a frantic speed and everyone else systematically checking rooms one by one, it took ten minutes to go through the basement once more. There was no sign of new mirrors and the old ones had gone completely inactive, refusing even to provide general hints. If the dagger-giving snake still existed, it had to be in one of the other rooms of the school.

With nothing left, the group went to the classroom that had killed Helen last time. None of them had ever studied there, but they knew that some of the other grades had geography there. This time, everyone was prepared.

Helen remained in the corridor while Will opened the door for Jace to look inside. As the person with the fastest reflexes at present, it was decided that the jock would take on the role of initial scout.

“All clear,” Jace said. “No mirrors that I can see.”

“Very sus, bro.” Alex had several of his mirror copies enter.

Just as the jock had said, there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary, as far as mirrors were concerned. The desks were empty, the board had been scrubbed, and all learning aids were carefully put away in their respective drawers and cupboards.

If Will hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed anything to have happened there.

“Jace, turn your phone light on,” Will said.

The jock did so. Going inside, Will then closed the door.

“Point the light towards the door,” he shouted and slowly opened it.

Light spilled in, indicating all the potential places the mirror could have been.

“Alex—” he began.

“Got you, bro,” the goofball’s copies said, as they rushed to place mirror traps in all likely and unlikely spaces. Meanwhile, Will kept slowly opening the door.

“What’s it like?” Helen asked a short distance away in the corridor, waving the spiked bat aimlessly about.

“Just a classroom.” Jace turned in her direction. “There’s a globe if you want to smash that.”

“Seriously?” she frowned at him.

“It’s not like there’s anything better to do until that fucker shows up.”

“Almost ready,” several Alexes shouted from inside. “Just be careful not to step into any of them.”

Will glanced over his shoulder, then opened the door fully and stepped outside.

“It’s all set up,” he said. “Alex, get your clones out.”

“Why?” the goofball asked. “They’re my reflections, bro. They don’t think for themselves.”

Jace put away his phone and took a step back. Will took a scalpel, ready to throw it the moment anything appeared. The monster had been fast, so he had to be at the top of his game.

Taking a deep breath, Helen slowly made her way to the opened door. Her steps echoed in the empty hallway. The tension was so thick that one could cut it with a knife. A few feet separated her from seeing what was inside the room. Raising her bat, the girl stopped.

“What weapon do you think it’ll drop?” Alex whispered. “Would be cool if it’s something ranged.”

“Alex,” Helen said in a clear voice. “You’re an idiot.” She then took the final few steps.

Tutorial failed.

Restarting eternity.

The message blinked in front of Will’s eyes. Next, it was morning again.

“What the heck?” he looked around.

There could be no doubt a new loop had begun. Unlike last time, he hadn’t even seen Helen get killed. In fact, he didn’t remember seeing anything at all. It was almost as if someone’s standard loop had come to an end, failing the tutorial for everyone.

Suddenly, Will’s phone rang.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he took it out of his pocket and accepted the call.

“What happened?” Helen asked from the other end.

“No idea.” The boy moved to the side so as not to block the path to school. As usual, he also received Jess’ expected comment as she and Ely passed by. “You went up to the door and—”

“I told you to extend your loop as much as possible!” the girl interrupted, not at all pleased.

“I did the same things I did last time. I was good for several hours more.” It had to be Jace, he thought. Alex was too good to make such mistakes. Still, Jace had also diligently extended his loop to the same extent. If anything, it had to be as efficient as the other loop. Even without the loop extension reward, there was no reason for anyone to slip out of eternity so soon. “Are you sure it wasn’t the monster?” he asked.

“Because I wouldn’t remember that!” Helen snapped through the phone.

“Bro!” Alex came rushing in. “What happened, bro?”

Will gestured for him to stay quiet.

“If it’s the loop—” he began.

“There’s nothing else it can be!”

“If it’s the loop,” Will repeated. “We’ll start everything an hour earlier. Also, no basement searching. We go through the two rooms, get the rewards, and move to the monster.”

“I’m not rushing through the school just because you two can’t extend your loops properly.”

“It’ll be fine, Helen. Just calm down.”

“Chill, sis!” Alex shouted in Will’s face. “I’ll be right there to help you with the start.”

In response, the girl ended the call. Not the best way to react, but one had to admit that the latest failure was irritating. Failing by defeat was one thing. Failing due to lack of time felt worse than Will losing his dagger.

The loop extension started immediately. Everyone focused on stretching eternity for as long as possible, while also dealing with the familiar annoyances at school. By evening, they were in front of the school entrance, ready and eager once more.

Barely saying a word, they went through the basement, where they quickly cleared the two rooms. This time, it was Alex’s turn to get a reward, acquiring the wall running ability.

Out of fear of missing out, Helen went through all the remaining basement rooms briefly, spending a few seconds in each. Since no mirror instantly became visible, she—and the rest of the group—went back to the geography classroom. Knowing what to do, they prepped it yet again and took their places. All that was left was for Helen to pass by the open door and—

Tutorial failed.

Restarting eternity.