Time Loop System

I woke up the next day and saw Karson training in the back alley on his own whilst Skinny watched from a distance.

Karson shot out continuous perfect slashes like it was nothing and so I just stood there watching with Skinny.

"Hey Skinny, why didn't you tell me you used to be called Blood-Axe?" I asked without ever taking my eyes off of Karson.

"I don't know I always thought the nickname was a little embarrassing. I'd rather just go by Skinny." 

"How long's he been out here training for anyway?" I gestured over to Karson who seemed like a madman possessed with his repetitive slashes.

"He was out here when I woke up an hour ago. Didn't even notice me, he's just been doing this the whole time."

OK maybe I should go see what was up.

"Karson stop!" I yelled out and he instantly sheathed his sword and turned to face me.

He was dripping with sweat and had a strange look in his eye, maybe he really was a madman possessed.

"That still you in there Karson?" He nodded his head whilst he continued to pant, "Then what the hell are you doing?"

"I needed to make sure that I really could summon the second stage so I've been practicing since I woke up."

"So you don't trust my training methods?"

"No it's not that I just didn't believe I could do it… Is there anything for me to improve upon?" Karson asked genuinely wanting my help.

"You probably need to work on your basic swordsmanship but you can do that whenever you want. There's not much I can help you with?" I was genuinely astonished yesterday at how perfectly executed the slash from his sword had been. I really doubted I could do anything to save help.

"But… What about getting to the third stage?" he asked coyly.

"I have no idea bro. I only guessed at what the second stage was and you managed to become proficient at that."

"In that case," he bowed to me and said, "I thank you for your tutelage."

"Oh would you just get inside already I could smell your sweat from inside. We don't want the neighbors complaining." I said before heading over to Skinny trying to disguise my smile.

"OK Skinny, that's 2 of you guys trained up now all that's left is Clarisse and Steven."

"Steven! What can he do in combat?" Skinny didn't even find it funny, I guessed that I'd shown myself decent enough at being a trainer.

"I don't know yet… So which one do you want to take?"

"I don't know that I can train either of them," he threw his hands up in surrender. "I think Clarisse's magic stuff goes over my head and I doubt Steven is the type for up-close combat."

I sighed, "OK guess I'll start with Steven but if he turns out to be able to use a weapon then you can train him."

"Alright I suppose that's fair." Skinny muttered.

I walked into the interrogation room and Steven was still asleep on his chair, that is until I put down the Status pedestal in the middle of the table and slammed the door behind me.

"OK Steven put your hands on this." I gestured to the pedestal in front of me as though I were a gameshow host.

"Alright, but why am I shackled?" he said clinking together his chains.

"This was how I was inducted into Orion so I thought it might be fitting to do the same for you. Also you are a really heavy sleeper." 

Steven put his right hand on the crystal ball and I was finally able to see what Karson and Clarisse had been staring at when they brought me in.

{Name: Steven Field}

{Level: 3}

{Skills: ???, Strength (Dirt Rank), Agility (Dirt Rank), Defence (Dirt Rank), Intelligence (Iron Rank), Observation (Dirt Rank), Inventory (Dirt Rank)}

Well from what I could see his only high stat was intelligence (go figure) but I couldn't make out the first skill on the list. That must be his inherent skill as we are unable to see those.

"Steven, what's your inherent skill?" 

"It's called Null and it's only at stage 1. Every time I attempt to use it nothing happens and it's never been talked about in any wikis or forums. I just assume it does nothing by the title."

Null. He's right it could mean that it does nothing given he's gone through his life trying and failing to use it but the system seems certain that I can utilize his potential somehow.

"Does it mean it can nullify other skills?" I figured I would get an obvious question out of the way.

"No I've tried that and it doesn't work." Steven explained.

That's when I thought about the fact that it must be a skill that could only be used in combat.

"Why are you smiling so evilly all of a sudden?" 

I put Karson and Skinny on trying to bring out the potential of his skill, which they both seemed delighted about for some reason. My guess was that they felt good about it being the other way around or something, but I quickly dismissed that they both seemed too good natured for a reason like that.

At least that's what I was thinking as I walked back inside hearing the sounds of evil laughter and Steven's cries for help. 

It pained me to have to do this to the guy who I was technically roommates with but if we were going to win this debate in a week then we would probably be making enemies with a powerful guild. We all had to be ready to defend ourselves even Steven…

I walked back inside and sat myself down next to Clarisse on the sofa, she was watching some romantic drama or something that didn't really catch my interest. I was just glad to have some down time to relax finally.

"Just what is it you guys do out in the alley every day?" I reopened my eyes and lifted my head to look at Clarisse, she was back to wearing normal clothes and now she was crocheting. 

"Oh it's just combat training you don't need to worry too much about it." I said laying my head back down and closing my eyes.

"You all seem to be a doing a lot of training for a verbal debate."

This time I just opened my eyes, "Well it may put us at war with the Templar guild. So we have to be prepared." I shut my eyes again hoping this would be the last time she would bother me.

"Well then, why aren't you doing anything?" 

I mumbled to myself, "Can't I just have 5 minutes to myself?"

"Sorry Zane what did you say?"

I shot up from the sofa grabbed the remote and turned it off. I caught a glimpse of myself in the black reflection of the turned off TV, I really did smile like a villain.

"I think it's time we both trained then. Don't you think?" I smiled wickedly at her.

"Haha I'm sorry Zane I'm taking some time off right now!" She said nervously laughing at my daunting facial expression.

"Nope! I've trained Karson and Skinny, now they're trying to train Steven, and now all that's left is you!" I pointed my finger straight into her face.

I yanked her up and outside, passing by a sobbing defeated Steven, we walked out of the alley.

"Keep up the good work guys!" I yelled back to Karson and Skinny before we left.

"W-what are w-we doing up here?" said Clarisse panicking.

"Well I had to beat the stress of up close combat into the others. However, you're a mage with a mental block which is very different. So we need to scare your mind into creating magic." I called out to her.

I had taken her to the roof of the Templar Guild, I had seen the elevator code the last time we were here so why not take advantage of it. She was standing on a very narrow ledge whilst I lay down in the nice calming centre of the roof.

She was in no real risk of danger of course as I could just loop time to save her but I couldn't tell her that.

"Why are you doing this to me?" she called out to me the terror completely evident in her voice.

"We need to train you for the upcoming confrontation with the Templar guild. So you need to get stronger in less than a week." It was also because she had implied I had been doing nothing and interrupted my one moment to myself, but that was another thing I couldn't tell her.

"So take out Loki's wand and start making magic happen! The sooner you get your magic working the sooner we leave this roof! I could happily stay up here for days if I need to its much more comfortable than the table anyway." That was a slight lie, we were in mid-autumn so I was looking to be back in the basement before Christmas.

She took out her wand from the inventory and began trying to cast magic whilst her knees and shoulders buckled.

"I need to get down!" She yelled at me.

"No you don't," I sprung up and got onto the ledge with her. "You just need to relax. If magic is so scary to you then dealing with heights should be no problem."

I began to samba on the narrow ledge and even almost got her to give me a smile. "Come on now you try."

She imitated my movements and soon her knees had propped back up, her shoulders were still tensed though and every time she would catch a glimpse at how high up we were she would panic and completely tense up.

"Come on now just incorporate casting magic into the dance." I danced over to and grabbed her by the shoulders which reignited her fear of falling. "You already have everything you need to do this. So just relax and have a good time. Look at how nice a day it is today."

I hopped down whilst she continued to dance and tried to channel magic and lied myself back down in the centre of the roof. I guess I can add 'knows samba dancing' to the list of things I know about the former Zane Mack.

She had really started get into it and started to almost enjoy herself and when I put some music on my phone to accompany her, she began to giggle. Right as she started to laugh that's when it happened, her eyes changed from green to a dark purple as darkness cascaded over like a strange force field.

I turned the music off and the force field was being forced open my purple lightning stemming out dancing along the sky and the rooftop. Underneath all that was left was Clarisse who closed her eyes and fell face forward back onto the roof.

I gained some unbelievable stares as I bridal carried Clarisse's unconscious body through the lobby of the Templar guild. Well at least it might bring down the Templar Guild's reputation a little before the debate.

I sort of half-jogged back to the basement as fast as I could, being careful not to wake her up or jostle her around too much. Karson or Skinny would know what to do for sure, I just hoped I hadn't just broken her brain with magic or something.

When I turned the corner into the back alley though, I saw the unbelievable… Steven was no longer crying on the ground and was actually dodging an attack or two from Skinny. Sure it wasn't a massive improvement but it meant that some kind of progress was happening.

When Karson who was taking a break saw me carrying Clarisse he came over to inspect her and after checking her pulse motioned for the other 2 to keep training.

I brought her inside with Karson following me close behind and I put her gently down onto the interrogation room table.

"Wouldn't she be better on the sofa?" Karson asked with worry in his voice.

"This room has better lighting plus it's a much more sturdy surface. But can you bring some of the cushions from the sofa to put below her?"

Karson did as I asked and a few seconds later he was examining her status using the pedestal whilst checking for any medical issues.

"She's fine. She just suffered an overflow of mana. What happened to her?" Karson told me, clearly thinking now would be the best time to try his doctor impression.

I explained to him the whole training scheme, which he had been mortified to hear about it, until I told him all about what had happened after with the overflow of darkness and purple lightning.

"Well your training methods are completely horrifying but you somehow always get results. I think you managed to unblock her."

"Really?!" I said surprised I had guessed that we would have needed to do quite a few more days of training but just like with Karson my intense drill sergeant method won out in the end.

"How do you come up with these weird ways of training?"

"Well I guess I don't really have any experience with how this world works or even my own. So I can bring my outside perspective to things and just rely on my common sense." That was my best guess anyway.

"Then what was the philosophy behind both of our training methods?" Karson asked pointing to himself and the sleeping Clarisse.

"You seemed like you had just been in a slump with your swordsmanship so I figured by drilling every thought out of your head with constant practice you would be able to stop spiralling. As for her when she taught me about magic I could tell her she only looked at incredibly seriously and academically so I wanted her to relax and stop thinking so hard about it."

"You call nearly having her fall off a building relaxing?" Karson rebutted.

"No that part was just about letting go of her fear. I saw something similar in a movie once."

Karson was clearly baffled but in the end he couldn't come up with a single argument as both of my insane methods had actually worked.

"Hey what happened to Steven by the way he looked like he was dodging some of Skinny's attacks?"

"Well we were consistently warming up against him and then all of a sudden his instincts or something kicked in and he began to actually dodge our attacks."

"Wow what do you think caused it?"

"Well I think his agility probably ranked up a bit the same way my defence and strength did when Skinny warmed up on me."

"In your personal opinion what do you think his null skill actually does?"

"He managed to use it once on me I was sure of it, it felt like I just couldn't hit him for some reason for a little bit. What do you think he's going to be?"

"I think with an ability that can negate being hit on occasion and an instinct for agility, maybe he could become a rogue"

"Sound thinking but you can tell just by looking at the guy that he's never held a weapon in his life."

"Once he's able to complete a warm up without being hit once we can get into the actual training don't worry." I replied.

I caught my reflection in the one way mirror, a monstrous grin covered my face yet again…