Time Looped

The wolves were four and as large as ever. The benefits of fighting in a room with one mirror was that they were forced to come out one at a time. Neither of the boys expected that, but were glad that it happened. It would have been even better if they’d planned it appropriately.

With a snarl, the first wolf leapt out, its jaw snapping in the direction of Will. Since neither of the boys were outright attackers, their quickly devised plan was for Will to be the bait and Jace—the surprise attack. The result was anything but what they had expected.

At the sight of the massive beast, the jock hesitated. The spear in his head trembled, missing its opportunity to pierce the creature in the neck. In his defense, it was difficult to concentrate when facing a wolf the size of a bull. As the jaw snapped in the air, a bone shattering sound filled the room.

“What are you waiting for?!” Will shouted, having the difficult task of staying close enough to the wolf to be the preferred target, but not that close to get bitten.

Droplets of sweat had formed on the jock’s forehead. The sudden yell made him snap out of his panicked state, but it was already too late. Just as he struck with his spear, a second wolf emerged from the mirror, grabbing the shaft of the weapon in its jaws.

Great, Will thought, reaching for his own weapon. Though nowhere as flashy and efficient as what his friend had prepared, it was enough to deal a lethal blow, especially since he knew the beast’s weak spot.

The first wolf collapsed on the floor with a gurgling sound, leaving Will to dash to the second one using his rogue reflexes. He had to be careful. One bite and the attempt would be over.

The creature’s jaws closed, breaking the “spear” in two. The massive head turned in Will’s direction, identifying him as the main threat. Thankfully, by now, Jace’s sense of rivalry kicked in. Even if he had messed up the original plan, he had no intention of letting Will take all the kills.

Pulling his half of the spear, he then quickly shoved it forward, right into the side of the wolf’s throat. There was an initial amount of pressure, quickly punctured, like a straw entering a fruit juice carton. Yet, this was no carton.

Two “Level Up” messages appeared on the small mirror. This was new and rather alluring. Both boys considered what they could achieve with a quick level up before the remaining wolves leaped out. However, it was only Will who had the speed to achieve it.

Dashing to the side of the mirror, he quickly tapped it twice. Instantly, the level two rogue skills appeared on the polished surface. The level three ones didn’t follow. Instead, the next beast leaped out.

“Craaap!” Will managed to evade it by the skin of his teeth. Even with his new skills, this was too close.

Jace didn’t feel too pleased, either. Being practically weaponless, he had no chance against the monster. The only option left was to humiliate himself and shift roles with Will becoming the lure.

“Hey!” he shouted, waving half of the wooden shaft. “This—”

Before he could finish, the wolf turned around, leaping at him, claws extended forward. The large jaws opened wide, ready to devour their prey, but never closed. A mass of weight hit the jock, crashing him all the way into the wall behind. By then, though, the wolf was already dead, a scalpel sticking from its chest.

One left! Will said to himself.

Without wasting a moment, he grabbed the front half of Jace’s spear from the wolf corpses. As expected, the final beast emerged and, this time, got a knife in the lower area of the throat. There was another gurgle, after which it, too, collapsed on top of the rest.

Adrenaline pumping in his veins, Will remained in place, staring at the mirror. Once again there were two messages on it. They were soon joined by a green message as well.

WOLF PACK REWARD (random)

CHAT BOARD MESSAGE (1): post a message on the chat board.

Chat board message? The boy wondered. What the heck is that?

Granted, this was only the second such reward Will had seen, but it sounded as useless as it was revealing. Apparently, eternity had a message board, although there was no indication of where or how it could be used. There was the option to use the reward right away and see what it did, but Will thought it would be better to keep onto it for the time when he knew exactly what it meant.

“Shitty wolf,” a groan came from the far side of the room as the jock tried to move the massive body of the wolf off him.

“You okay?” Will glanced over his shoulder.

“Yeah.” The lack of trembling on Jace’s side suggested that there was nothing broken. “Fucker pinned me to the wall.”

“Hold on.”

With common effort, the hulking beast was moved to the side. For two non-combat classes, the effort was considerate. The creature felt as if it weighed a ton. Once done, both boys sat on the floor to take a break and have the adrenaline run off. As they did, the surrounding bodies started disappearing.

“Or we could have done that,” Will said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, right. You do it next time a furred elephant crushes you.” Jace then glanced at the mirror. “Got anything good?”

“Chat board message,” Will replied.

“Huh?”

“That’s what it said. I have the right to post a message on the chat board. The chat board.”

The jock remained speechless, unable to determine whether that the prize was worth it or they had been cheated. After several seconds of consideration, he chose to say nothing.

“At least we didn’t restart the loop,” he added.

“There’s that. Oh, and you have a level up waiting for you.”

“Wow. We get shared experience?”

“Maybe. Either that or every kill counts to the person who did it. The first kill is one level, so it’s easy to get. After that it doubles every time.”

“Fun.” Even Jace could see that going past level four was going to be a pain. “Did you get yours?”

“Just one. Seems I got another.”

“How can you tell?”

“There’s two level ups on the mirror.”

Jace glanced at it. Surely enough, the two messages were there, as if clawed beneath the shiny surface.

The bodies of the wolves turned transparent, then completely disappeared, leaving the storeroom a mess. If a teacher or the janitor would walk in now, he’d send the boys to the vice-principal’s office for vandalism. There was no way anyone would believe what really had transpired.

The jock stood up and looked at the ground. The internal need to fix everything in sight kept getting stronger. Cursing himself, he managed to suppress it for long enough to get to the mirror.

“I just tap it?” he asked, looking at Will.

“Yep.” The other nodded.

SUPERIOR DEXTERITY

Enjoy perfect hand and finger flexibility.

SHATTER POINT

Locate the weak spot of a simple item or mechanical device.

REPAIR

Repair a simple item or mechanical device.

Explanations covered the mirror. Glancing over them, Jace went through a rollercoaster of emotions. Hoping to get something combat oriented, he was disappointed, thrilled, then disappointed even more. It took a while for him to come to terms with what he received. Strictly speaking, none of the skills were suited for combat, although they were ideal for support. Already, Jace could see everything he could create with the pieces in the storage room. The possibilities hadn’t seemed apparent moments ago, but since he leveled up his class, it seemed natural.

Eager, Jace tapped the mirror again. Nothing happened.

“I only got one level.” He turned to Will.

“Guess it’s based on kills and not shared.” The boy went to the mirror and tapped it. A new set of descriptions appeared, bringing his rogue to level three.

Eternity seemed exceedingly generous early on. The entire group could reach level two by killing off a single wolf pack. Two more groups and they’d get to level three. Only then they’d have to go solo in order to reach level four. In contrast, from what Helen had said, killing off all the goblins had only let her advance a single level. Maybe it was different when it came to minions. Of course, he only had her and Alex’s word for that.

Seven packs, Will thought. That’s how much it would take for everyone to get to the good levels. According to Daniel's notes, the school had less. Still, that didn’t guarantee it to be true. There were a lot of things missing from the desk.

“What’s up?” Jace asked.

“Thinking.” Will turned around. “The wolves are for skills and leveling, but the goblins are for loot.”

“Yeah? And?”

“I need to get the others here.” Will took out his phone.

Getting Alex and Helen to miss class was bad enough. Helen hated doing it, especially since she had already prolonged her loop till evening. As for Alex, it was like inviting a hyperactive hamster to a candy factory. The contrast between the two couldn’t be greater. Disapproval was written all over the girl’s face even before she said a word.

“Seriously?” she crossed her arms. “Fighting wolves instead of loop building?”

“Bro!” Alex’s eyes lit up, looking at the remains of devastation. “For real? This is so lit!”

“How many wolf rooms are there?” Will asked, ignoring both of their reactions.

“Why’s that important? We don’t have to—”

“How many?”

This was the first time that Will interrupted anyone in such an authoritative fashion. He was slightly surprised in himself, though nowhere nearly as much as everyone else. All this time he felt like the one lagging behind—less so since Jace had joined eternity. Right now, he had suddenly transformed into something that the group had lacked, possibly since Daniel’s death: a leader.

“Six,” the goofball said after a few seconds of silence.

“Six.” Will repeated. That means that one person would keep their class at level three, or maybe not. The goofball gained a few levels outside of the school, so maybe that didn’t count.

“And goblins only give one level at killing them all and possibly loot items.”

“Sus on the loot,” Alex whispered.

“Yes,” Helen said. “Why?” She looked straight at Will, but this time not in accusatory fashion, but rather interested in his reasoning.

“The mirror piece made it look like we have one task. That’s false. The wolves are here to level us up, which we’ll need in order to fight the goblins and anything else that will show up. Six wolf packs, plus Alex’s will get us all to level four. If the goblins also give us a level each time we clear a room, that means we can reach the higher levels, maybe even max out. Is the level based on kills?”

“I’m not sure,” the girl admitted. “I’ve always done the killing and claimed the reward.”

“Maybe if it’s a reward, anyone can claim it, like the green mirrors.” Will paused a moment, giving Jace a quick glance. “Wolf levels are based on personal kills. I killed three just now, and Jace killed one. The mirror only lets the right person get the right level.”

“Fire.” The goofball gaped.

“Makes sense.” Jace nodded. “They’ll need us to get strong to fight the boss fucker.”

A second wave of surprise swept through the room.

“What?” The jock stared back at everyone in turn. “It’s the same in football. You build up strength to face the champs, not just rush on and take them on the first day of training. We go through all the minor league stuff, then take on the big one.”

“I suppose that makes sense.” Helen quickly regained her usual composure. “But it doesn’t change a thing. You need to get to evening in order to fight anything.”

“It changes a lot,” Will said. “When we get to evening, we’ll be working as a team. That means fighting, leveling, even checking every room.”

“Lit, bro! Just like an RTS!” Alex joined in, ruining the moment, in part. Even so, the new goal had been set, or rather, the old one had been readjusted.

It was at the start of the following loop that another surprise discovery was revealed—Jace had found his quick loop extender and it turned out to be both obvious and unexpected. Just as Will needed to evade attacks, all that the jock needed to do was break things.

A few loops were spent confirming the theory, resulting in calls to both Jace and Will’s parents. The vice-principal was not pleased in the least. In her view, even the death of a fellow student a week ago was no reason for children to start fighting and breaking things. Neither of the culprits particularly cared. Gritting their teeth, they endured the end of the loop, then got ready for the final preparation.

The greater part of the school day was spent in planning what to buy for their evening run. Flashlights were a must, along with anything that could be used as a weapon and, as Alex suggested, drones. Since he was the only one who had access to the crafter class before Jace, he’d successfully combined it with his own, all the time making sure that the archer didn’t interfere with them again.

Once classes were over, and no one’s loop ended, the plan was set in motion. Jace and Will phoned their parents with various excuses as to why they would be late. Alex didn’t bother to, and as for Helen, she promptly was driven home, but with assurances that she’d be back at the school building at seven. The remaining trio spent the time in-between going through what shops were available—and not located on corners—to buy any supplies they could for the “school run” as the goofball kept referring to it. At last, they’d be the ones going on a hunt.