"Welcome to Nascentos, young man, I'm the keeper. How can I help you?" A rather unassuming man standing at the dungeon entrance asked Gaus.
"I want to register," Gaus said.
"Where's your team?" The man asked.
"I'm alone, does it matter?"
The man scrutinized him with narrowed eyes. After a minute, he shrugged. "As long as you can wait for the team inside to come out I've no complaints."
Nascentos was among the oldest sub-dungeons in the academy, according to Antelina. Initiates were welcomed as long as they could pay the entrance fee and sign the agreement letter that once inside they were responsible for their life and death. Noteworthy was a clear statement in the letter that the monsters in the dungeon couldn't use time, soul, or mind magic. Despite this assurance, raiding a dungeon alone was a reckless venture, Gaus signed up for it only because of the loop. What's the worst that could happen? A fatal injury? Death? He could just Rewind and even if he couldn't Rewind, the loop would make him new again as soon as it resets. Gaus frowned. He was having these unhealthy thoughts again. What if this was the last loop? It was entirely possible since nobody knew how the thing worked.
The registration was crude. He just put down his name on a paper, paid five hundred ayrids, and received identification in the form of a tablet with his name engraved on it. He wanted to ask where the entrance was but he decided to wait and see for himself when the team inside come out. In the meantime, he would keep the man and his gloomy cave company.
"What can I bring you?"
Gaus shook his head. There was this book in the library that cautioned people on eating dungeon food. He would have to check the authenticity of the information but for now, he would pass.
"Are you sure?"
Gaus smiled. "I'm fine. Thanks."
An hour later, a corner of the cave glowed and a doorway appeared. Three men covered in gore came out, stinking and gasping for air.
"Close it before that abomination flies out," one of them shouted, huffing and pointing at the keeper with his unsheathed blade.
"They don't fly," the dungeon keeper said defensively.
The three wounded men gritted their teeth and glared at him. They were so angry and vicious that it looked like they would attack the man, but they ultimately ran out of the cave faster than they had come out from the dungeon.
The keeper frowned. "I just added a couple of drakes to stir the mix. I even went overboard and let all ten of them entered. I've to do something about them else they would go around spilling lies to other students about how I tricked them. I can't afford to lose any more customers." He looked around the empty cave, which was twice as spacious as the classroom earlier, lamenting his lack of customers to Gaus. Talking about customers, the keeper was ready for them. There were all kinds of rugged chairs around the cave and even a restaurant if the words on the adjacent door Gaus was currently looking at were any indication.
"Can you tell me what's inside, besides the 'couple of drakes' that is?" Gaus asked.
The man shook his head. "I barely go inside myself," he said in frustration. "Besides, it isn't as if you'll die for good. None of the sub-dungeons cause lasting injury. The academy makes sure we are regularly supervised."
"Say I enter and I can't proceed, what're the requirements for coming out?" Gaus asked, taking a closer look at the blood-smeared footprints on the floor. Just how much injury did those guys sustain?
"Just break that thing in your hand," he pointed at the tablet with Gaus's name on it, "and the door will come to you."
Walking closer to the doorway Gaus realized it wasn't just light, there was a sturdy brick wall behind the luminous layer that kept the whole thing standing. Gaus stepped into the doorway after activating mana sense and stealth.
He found himself in another cave. Brightly lit and cold. It opened into several smaller caves.
Without any warning, an overgrown lizard jumped out from one of the caves and attacked him. He barely blinked away and even that was because of mana sense.
Rewind has saved 4 seconds.
You've Rewound for 4 seconds, effectively erasing everything in the said period. Only you will remember.
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Are you sure you want to use CP on the saved memory? Y/N?
Warning: no skill detected in the saved memory.
He pressed yes.
Almost at the same time, the memory transformed into a small book showing what happened in the last four seconds in a video recording. Even better, the video identified a spot just below the lizard's neck as its weak spot. Just as mentioned in the skill description, save library could analyze physique and target the weakest link - the point with the least constitution.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Everything happened before the world reset. When the world finally reset, Gaus had the knowledge he needed to defeat the beast. He retrieved a sword from his inventory, blinked right next to the beast's neck, and slashed.
It was a huge lizard-like beast with massive claws and dark brown skin that was as scaly as a crocodile. Its head was completely foreign with sharp horns on either side, an overgrown eye at the center of the head, and a frightening set of teeth that looked more like arrows than teeth.
Drake
Level 2
The sword broke into two as soon as it hit the drake. Gaus teleported away just in time to avoid the drake's claws.
The target is at least 24% harder than the sword used on it. It would be nigh impossible to create an opening.
Probability of success 4%.
Only 4%. Though it wasn't a surprise considering he was using an ordinary sword which was only purified to 1%.
He created another sword using blader, but this time he sharpened it, instantly raising the purity from 1% to 10%.
Ordinary sword
Wt: 1kg
Purified to 10%
Sword is connected to your Mana reserve and hence it can give feedback on attacks.
Sharpening raised the purity ten times, complementing blader.
He activated levitation and spinning, thinking they would also add value to the quality of the sword, but apparently not. What they did was increase the cost of swordplay. Spinning raised it from 0.1MP per minute to 1MP per minute whereas levitation raised it from 1MP to 10MP per minute and vise versa.
Swordplay activated.
10MP per minute.
Mana translated to control. The more mana he pumped into the skill the better his moves became.
Now with a better grip and a better blade, he teleported next to the drake and stabbed the weak spot. The sword easily pierced the tough skin of the beast and passed through its heart.
You've defeated an opponent below your level.
Ordinary victory!
+689 exp.
Time to level up.
Save library has reached level 6/100 (0/600)
+ 6 CP
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Rewind has reached level 6.
Specialization at level 10.
He still had 189 exp left so he leveled up swordplay.
Swordplay has reached level 2/10 (0/200)
+0.2MP per minute
Now when he used spinning and levitation it would be 20MP, making his control exponentially higher.
On the other hand, he now had 10 CPs so he didn't have to worry about running out of CP to put skills in the library any time soon.
Another lizard crawled out from a cave.
Drake
Level 2
He Rewound, picked the lizard's weak spot, blinked next to it, and slashed.
Flawless victory!
+8 exp
Despite calling it flawless, the exp was significantly lower than the previous one. He suspected it was because the drake was at a much lower level than him and because it wasn't the first time he killed something like it.
Three more drakes surfaced and surrounded him.
He teleported next to the first one and stabbed its eyes. At the same time, another sword appeared in his other hand just in time to stab the incoming drake in the chest. Ignoring their screeches, he left the two swords in them and teleported above the last drake, which was attacking him from behind. He used blader to create two swords and buried them in its neck.
Flawless victory!
+613 exp.
More levels were always good.
Save library has reached level 7/100 (0/700).
+7 CP
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Rewind has reached level 7/100
Specialization at level 10.
More level 2 drakes popped out of the caves, something he enjoyed at the beginning, but as time went he started getting increasingly less exp. It reached a point where he just couldn't progress anymore despite all the 'flawless victories' he achieved. He questioned the benefits of leveling up if it only reduced the exp he would get. Say he had stayed at level 2, he would probably still be getting a lot of exp from the drakes, but now he got nothing. He still had hope in the so-called specialization which would happen at level 10. So he abandoned his position and went deeper into the cave. Any drake he met on his way was just another level 2 and they mostly ran away from him as soon as they saw him. At one point, he reached a cul-de-sac. There he met a new opponent.
Drake
Level 3
It was three times larger than the largest drake he'd seen so far. In addition to the two horns on either side of its head, it also had several other smaller horns clustered on its face which left little room for the overgrown eye at the center. This was probably why the eye was smaller than it should have been.
There wasn't any civil exchange between them, not that Gaus was expecting any, but still...
He blinked away just in time to avoid a spear to his heart. The spear hit the wall behind and passed through it like it was butter.
Wait, that wasn't a spear. It was a bloody horn from the set on the beast's head. The drake could throw those things like it was the normal thing to do.