Time Looped

Returning to standard loop behavior, after the recent football routine, felt wrong. It was only after finding himself in the school corridor, dragging two fire extinguishers, that Will sensed something was not right. Dragging them back was no issue, same as before everyone seeing him believed it to be a planned event. Even so, it did waste him a minute.

“Yo, Stoner!” Jace yelled from the other side of the hallway. “Coming or what?”

There was no malice or anger in his words, making it mostly okay. Causing everyone else to stare at Will as if he were in trouble or about to get in it—not so much.

With a frown, the boy rushed to the classroom, when he suddenly realized his second mistake of the loop—he hadn’t tapped the rogue mirror.

Crap! “I’ll be right back!” he rushed out.

Half a minute later, he was back again. All other three looped were leaning at a desk, looking at him with the patience of a hungry newborn.

“I’m here,” Will stated the obvious, hoping to salvage the situation a bit. He did remember to close the door and wedge the back of a chair in the handle. At least that way they’d be able to fend off the inevitable flow of classmates that would start arriving shortly.

Done, the boy joined the rest of the group. The smell drilled through his nostrils, causing his eyes to water. For some reason, no one had bothered to open the windows this time. Everything considered, maybe this was a good precaution.

No one said a word, waiting silently for him to finish what he was doing and join them. Once he did, Helen took out the REWARD mirror piece and placed it on the desk.

“On every corner,” she said in a tone of voice that suggested she still didn’t trust any of them not to mess up. And just to be sure, she pressed the corner nearest to her with her index finger.

The knight’s helmet icon emerged on the reflective surface. It was soon joined by Alex’s purse and dagger and Will’s hooded masque. Everyone held their breaths. Only one thing remained.

Concentrating, as if he were about to pass the ball in a critical game, Jace placed his thumb on the remaining corner of the mirror piece. A saw crossed with a hammer formed—the crafter’s icon.

Just as last time, all four icons flashed in unison, though this time, they didn’t vanish, but rather merge together in the middle of the piece. An iconized version of a chest appeared, covering everything else.

Congratulations, THIEF, KNIGHT, ROGUE, CRAFTER! You have made progress!

Prize earned!

The chest opened before everyone’s eyes, revealing a shimmering key.

Select your Key Holder!

A new message appeared underneath.

“Have any of you seen anything of the sort?” Will asked, looking in turn at Alex and Helen.

“Not me,” the girl said.

“Nah, bro.” Alex shook his head. “Just green mirrors.”

“Green mirrors?” Jace asked, still confused by the entire situation.

“Additional skills,” Will said, semi-ignoring the question.

“Okay… So, who gets—”

“Helen.” Will didn’t let the jock finish his question. Everyone looked at him. For some reason, he felt a slight burning sensation in his ears. “What? She’s the knight. If something happens, she’s best suited to handle it.”

“Wow.” The girl narrowed her eyes. “Just wow.”

Crap! That came out all wrong! It wasn’t at all what Will had in mind. Too late now, though. Any attempt to clarify matters would only make him sound apologetic, which would confirm their preconceptions.

“Smooth, bro!” Alex laughed, while Jace gave him a silent pat on the shoulder, shaking his head.

“She’s the only one immune to pain,” Will continued. Having reached his current degree of mess up, he might as well explain his original idea. “Unless the idea is for one of us to claim the knight from here on.”

The notion that she might lose her class quickly made Helen react differently. Her thirst thought was to vehemently oppose any such attempt. Next, she considered whether it would be such a bad idea to lend the class on a temporary basis. Nothing suggested that the key holder would be permanent, although nothing indicated they wouldn’t be.

“Alex can evade anything,” the girl said after a while.

“You’re seriously suggesting we let him have the key?” Will’s eyes widened.

Without a doubt, Helen hadn’t thought her statement through. Logic that was built up for years within her reasoned that the idea was actually good. Alex had been longest within eternity, which meant he knew a lot more than the rest of them. And yet every fiber of her body rebelled at the thought that they’d have to put their fate in him.

“We can use an app to decide,” the goofball said, only furthering her doubt.

“Fine, I’ll do it.” Helen snapped, almost hoping someone would argue with her not to. Since no one did, she reached down and touched the key image with her finger.

You have become a KEY HOLDER.

Use your new skill to unlock hidden mirrors!

(1/7)

A golden message read.

“Did Danny mention anything about that?” Will whispered.

Alex shook his head. Whatever secrets the previous rogue had found, this wasn’t part of them. Clearly, now that the entire group had gathered, they were up against something new—something that even a three-month-loop couldn’t reveal.

Reacting to the one-of-seven at the bottom of the message, Alex tapped the mirror piece. The only thing that happened was him leaving a greasy smudge on the shiny surface.

“Seriously?” Helen glared at him.

“Fail,” he said, rubbing his fingers in his shirt to get rid of the muffin stickiness there.

Sighing audibly, Helen tapped the mirror, avoiding the smudge as she did so.

Starting Tutorial

Defeat all the monsters in your area. When you do so, the Boss will appear.

(2/7)

Eagerly, the girl tapped again.

For each cleared room, you’ll get one temporary reward.

The reward is completely random and might not always help you with your task at hand.

(3/7)

If any player leaves the loop before the tutorial is over, it cannot be completed and will start again during the next loop.

(4/7)

“Slow down!” Jace said. “I wasn’t able to read the last one.”

“Bro, it’s one sentence.” Alex snickered, taking a muffin out of his pocket.

“It’s more difficult reading from the side, muffin boy.” The jock grumbled, reaching to give him a slap on the face. Before his fingers got anywhere near, Alex had disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the desk.

Almost on cue, the handle of the school door turned. It was that time again—the moment people started gathering for class and wondering why they couldn’t enter. From here on it was obvious what would follow: several minutes of shouting and attempts at forcing the door open until it was time for the loop to restart again. None of the group liked that time. It was annoying and utterly unproductive.

Helen tapped the mirror piece once more.

Hint 1

The Boss mirror will only activate after the last area monster room is cleared.

(5/7)

“Done reading?” she asked in a less annoyed tone that one might expect.

After a few seconds, both Will and Jace nodded.

Hint 2

There are seven weapons hidden that will make fighting the boss easier.

(6/7)

Waiting to get the nod from everyone else, the girl then tapped the mirror piece for the final time.

Hint 3

Only key holders can claim loot from monsters.

(7/7)

The message flickered for a few moments, then knowing that it had reached the end of its usefulness, faded away, returning the mirror piece to its original state.

Ten seconds passed in silence, only disturbed by the pounding on the door and coach’s angry yells.

From everything they had seen so far, it was obvious that eternity was a game of some sort: a series of tasks that allowed one to continue forward. The reason and the end goals remained a mystery. Daniel seemed to have mentioned a final prize and the promise of escape, although he had never shared how he had come to such conclusions. Gathering a full group and activating the mirror piece had presented something new, and still for some reason Will couldn’t help but feel the unease in his stomach.

“You realize it, right?” he asked with one minute left to the end of the loop. “I don’t think the monsters will be as simple as the wolves.”

“Wolves?” Jace asked.

“What if the wolves are the monsters?” Helen asked. “I don’t think Danny ever killed off all of them. Right?” She turned to the goofball.

“Nah,” he waved his hand. “I did.”

“Sure, muffin boy.” The jock smirked.

“For real! After class. Big oof with people around.”

“You killed all of them?” The girl joined in the skepticism.

“Easy with traps.” He paused. “Gave me lots of perks and levels.”

But not enough to escape, Will thought. Maybe it would have been better if Alex had taken the key. He seemed to be more efficient at this, not to mention that he’d be able to loot the creatures, be they wolves or something else. Although…

“Alex, can you teach Helen to use traps?” Will leaned closer.

“Teach, bro?’ The goofball blinked. “The mirror teaches you. I can lend her the thief…”

“Won’t work,” Helen said. “All of us must remain in the loop to reach the boss. if I get all the classes, what will you do?”

“Support you morally from a distance?”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Will felt a chuckle come through. He wasn’t the only one. There was a reason his friend was considered a mostly lovable goofball. When he wanted, he could alleviate any situation. Helen was right, though. Having a team of four powerful looped sounded preferable to having one overpowered person forced to protect the other three. Will still remembered what four wolves had done to a room of students, and that was without any of them being affected by the fragile nature that came with eternity.

“Ok, so we group up,” Will suggested. “We get our classes and meet up here. After that we—”

Restarting eternity.

The loop pulled time back ten minutes ago, bringing Will back to the front of the school. His muscle memory quickly drove him into the building, not even waiting to hear Jess’ usual comment.

“A reminder to all students,” the announcement sounded. “We remind you to take care of your physical and mental health. There is no shame in seeking help.”

Part of him wanted to pump up the volume in the hopes that his earbuds would drown the annoying announcement he had been forced to learn by heart. Even at the start of this, he hadn’t considered it remotely useful. Now, after so many loops, it had become little more than a pestering puzzling in his ears.

“The school counselor’s door is open at all times,” the boy said in a mocking voice. He would have continued, if he wasn’t interrupted by a heart stopping shriek coming from down the corridor.

Will’s immediate reaction was to brace for wolves. With Jace still being green when it came to all of this, it wasn’t out of the question that he might go somewhere he wasn’t supposed to—a corner room with mirrors, for example.

As a second shriek followed, the boy’s initial fears faded, replaced by new ones. He didn’t need rogue senses to tell that the creature that had let out that noise couldn’t be human. It was more like a combination of nails sliding on glass and cats meowing in summer.

Everyone in the hallway froze perfectly still, their minds trying to figure out what could emit such a sound. They didn’t have to wait for long. The door to the girl’s bathroom flew off its hinges, slamming into the opposing wall. Along with it, there was a creature that could be described as anything but human.

Short and gray with a large head, hands and feet, but skinny arms and legs, the being looked more at home in someone’s nightmare. The scaly helmeted head turned to the side, large black eyes focusing on the nearest person. A new scream sounded, this one very much human.

The creature snarled. The crude leather armor covering its torso wrinkled as it drew a small dagger from its belt. Before it could take it out fully, another creature flew from the bathroom, slamming into it.

Helen! Will thought.

Instinct made him rush to help despite being without his class. There was a small whisper of logic in the back of his mind, suggesting that he went through the boy’s bathroom first, but it was quickly ignored.

The boy grabbed a weapon from the dazed creature, then quickly stabbed it in the side of the neck. There was no telling whether that was its weakness, but the brief gurgling sound suggested it very well might be. The second creature sensed the change, finally taking out its own weapon in full.

Panic ensued. Most people in the hallway were running away from the scene as fast as possible. Some, a far lesser number, were slowly backing away, not missing the chance to record the event on their phones. It wasn’t every day that one had their school attacked by goblins. If this weren’t a loop, Will would have probably yelled at them to stop with that and barricade themselves in the classrooms. As things stood, in eight minutes they’d be brand new, with no memory whatsoever of the incident.

“Stoner!” A backpack flew through the hallway, hitting the goblin in the back of the head.

Not expecting the sudden force, the little body toppled over, slamming the creature’s face into the floor. Without thinking, Will took advantage of the situation, rushing forward and burying the knife in the goblin’s neck.

Will took the second creature’s dagger, then slid it along the floor to Jace. A moment later, he pulled out his own weapon from the unfortunate corpse and turned in the direction of the hole in the wall.

“Bathroom!” he said. No sooner had he done so that his blood froze, sending chills down his spine. “Oh, crap.”