So one risk was allowing the package to degrade in your mind. On the positive side, he would get the soul pillars and he would have Gaus's immortality to back him up. It was time to leap of faith.

He went back to the hideout.

"Have you already made up your mind? It seems you're desperate. Maybe there's some truth to your words," Minorita said, surprised.

"How long will the memory package take to degrade?" Gaus asked.

"Three months."

He decided to go with it. If the summoning was successful then Tyren would have a little surprise this restart.

"I want the summoning done before you install the package."

"Okay."

***

1:06 am.

It was dark when he left the forest and returned to Crisstar. He didn't feel any difference, physically or mentally, after Minorita had summoned the soul-pillars, or after receiving the package. Sure, there was the emotional turmoil from having two adults clamped your head for several minutes. Other than that it was... plain, anticlimactic. No pain, no pressure, nothing.

However, he didn't expect the mana cost of the summoning to be so high. According to Minorita, she paid 68 MP for the summoning alone and 2 MP per hour for as long as the pillars were active. It would cost her 116 MP every day.

He didn't want to go through the tedious process of identifying himself when he came next so he asked her how to avoid that. She gave him a name. A name he didn't expect to hear again.

***

As soon as the loop restarted, Gaus checked the save library. Hopefully, he'd gotten something from Minorita.

Save library

Two skills were detected.

Use CP to activate? Y/N?

If he could just copy the skills then he wouldn't need the receptionist. He pressed yes excitedly.

Soul-pillar summoning

Requirement(s): 15% affinity for soul magic.

NB: you must fulfill requirements to activate the skill.

*

Memory package

Requirement(s): 5% affinity for mind magic.

NB: you must fulfill requirements to activate the skill.

Dammit.

He didn't have the requirements to copy the skills and would possibly never have because of his low affinity for mind and soul magic. Unless if he could somehow increase his affinities. Otherwise, he had to learn the skills the 'proper' way.

It was time to return the memory package and talk about that name. Whatever happened next would determine his actions for the remainder of the restart.

It was still dark when he arrived in the forest. The sky was covered in a haze but he could see the light of dawn creeping up from below. It was cold in the forest. He would need a sweater if he was going to be here for long.

"In the name of William Wilberforce, we order you to state your purpose and drop your weapons."

Gaus pitied them. How many years had they been repeating the same thing over and over again? Poor souls.

"I'm looking for London."

There was some silence and confused looks among the archers. They didn't know the name.

"How did you know my name?" A voice came from behind him. It was Lilat - the creepy assistant. Minorita walked behind her among the others, though her clean clothes differentiated her already.

"Your name? No, I don't think so." He shook his head. "They call you Lilat. That silver-haired behind you is Minorita. Although her future self told me to call her London."

He got their undivided attention. Minorita came forward and stood just a couple of meters away from him, staring.

"My 'future self'?" She asked incredulously.

Gaus nodded. "There is nothing I can say that will convince you, but I have a message for you. Your future self seems to believe the message will be enough to convince you."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Minorita stared at him silently for several seconds. She didn't believe him. "I don't remember anything about any of this."

"Why would you need me to carry a message for you if you can remember it yourself?"

"And what message did my future self send to me?" She decided to play along but the sarcasm in her voice was almost palpable.

"It's a memory package stored in my mind. You can pick it whenever you are ready."

She glanced at Lilat who nodded in response. He got the feeling that Lilat was the mind mage who did all the dirty work.

Lilat came forward and put a hand on his head to retrieve the package.

It was fast. He didn't even feel it. Lilat whispered something to Minorita before they turned to him with grave expressions.

"We'll need at least ten hours to look through it. Come back in the evening."

"We don't have much time. If you read the package you'll know what I mean. How about in two hours?"

"Just come back in the evening," Lilat snapped.

Gaus was forced to leave.

Ten hours were just too long. He needed to figure out how to deal with this in the next loop.

Instead of wasting the day, he went back to loopers academy. He would be expelled if he missed one more day. Then other temporary loopers in the city might spot him and cause him trouble. Despite all its risks, the academy was the best cover he'd got. He could go anywhere in the city and do what he wanted without the fear of being found.

He went to see Linc in his office.

After the initial introductions, Linc went straight to the point. "Use levitation only to pull the dagger out of the ground."

Gaus put his hand a few inches above the dagger and pulled it out using levitation.

"Good. I didn't expect you to do that. Can you levitate five daggers at a time?"

Gaus retrieved five daggers from his inventory and levitated them simultaneously.

"Throw them at me."

He threw all the five at the teacher, using spinning to change the course of the daggers so he could attack from different angles. Linc deflected the daggers with the wave of his hands. He pulled a sword out of his drawer and threw it at Gaus.

"Use it."

Gaus caught it midair and with practiced ease, he stabbed it on the ground and pulled it out using levitation. He levitated it just above his palm and then threw it at the teacher.

"Excellent!" Linc said not trying to hide his excitement. "You've learned spinning, levitation, sharpening, javelin, and even multiple levitation. Now all you need is to get five more skills to tame your mana and get your classification. Excellent. Well done."

He hurriedly flipped through some files on his table before he turned to Gaus again. "Why don't you take the mentor-mentee program and become my apprentice?"

Gaus opened his mouth but was immediately interrupted. "If you become my apprentice I won't mind teaching you my secret skills."

"I'll.." Gaus started.

He was interrupted again. "I need to become your mentor. I have a lot to teach you. Do you understand?"

"Okay, okay. I will accept you as my mentor."

"Good, good. Now all you need is to sign this."

He retrieved a paper from a file on his desk and gave it to Gaus. Gaus skimmed through it and signed it.

"Good. But this should be kept a secret, you know."

Gaus nodded.

"We'll focus our energy on taming your mana. Let's start with the practical applications of mana taming."

He marked a point on the wall and shot it with an arrow. Gaus watched him in silence and secretly copied archery.

Archery

Rank: ordinary

Shooting arrows with a bow is an ordinary but life-saving skill. It will add to your long-range skills.

Cost: 1 MP (speed 5m/s)

"Now," Linc pulled the arrow out of the wall with levitation and made it flew to him, "I'll shoot the same spot again. Your job is to make sure I miss it. All you've to do is to levitate the arrow mid-air before it hit the target."

"But you told us not to levitate a moving object," Gaus said.

"I know what I told you." He threw the bow at him. "Shoot me. Let me show you how to do it."

Gaus reluctantly pulled the arrow. It felt right in his hands. He could roughly gauge the speed with which the arrow would fly after he released it. "Are you sure about this?"

Linc gave him a mild glare. "Just shoot, boy."

Gaus released the arrow. Hopefully, Linc was fast enough to dodge it. He closed his eyes, secretly wondering what would happen to the rest of the restart if he were to kill a teacher during a training session.

"Open your eyes," Linc snapped.

Slowly, Gaus opened his eyes. The arrow was floating in the air just a few inches away from Linc's heart.

"Did you... stop it?" Gaus asked slowly.

"I did. It's called advanced levitation. If you master it you can affect a moving projectile. You can stop an arrow or a spear thrown at you from a distance. You can even deflect an enemy's sword. Can you imagine how much help that will be in a real battle?" Linc explained.

Yes. He could very well imagine that. But just pulling a dagger out of the ground and throwing a sword didn't mean he could stop a speeding arrow. He might as well just try his luck with the save library.

No skill was detected.

What?

So far there had been only two categories of skills he couldn't copy. Category A couldn't be copied because the save library couldn't detect them. Magiwatch skills and bloodline skills belonged to this category. Category B skills couldn't be copied but that was because of requirements. Take for example elemental skills that came from spirits. He needed a specific spirit to copy a specific element. He could already copy levitation and all the other mana taming exercises. He should be able to copy this so-called advanced levitation.

"Sir, are you using pure mana to stop the arrow?" Gaus asked. He strongly suspected that Linc was using either his magiwatch or bloodline skill or something to block the sword.

Linc nodded. "Yes. Why are you asking?"

Was the teacher lying about his skill? Gaus got the feeling there was more to it than just pure mana taming.

"It's nothing, sir. I'm just curious."

"Then keep your curiosity to yourself and focus on the task at hand."

"Yes, sir."

"Make sure I don't hit the target." Linc fired the arrow at the same spot.

Gaus focused on the arrow. It would miss the target if he could levitate it for just a fraction of a second...

Dammit.

The arrow hit the target.

"Let's try again." Linc fired another one.

Gaus failed again. Levitation could be explained as using invisible hands. These hands were both invisible and imaginary. But with enough practice, you could grab a stationary object. But moving targets were just... difficult. He had to wait for the projectile to enter his range first before he could even attempt. And the arrow was just too fast even when it was within range.

After firing ten arrows in a row and Gaus couldn't stop a single one, Linc got curious. He slowed down the arrows by minimizing the mana cost, hoping that would be enough to encourage Gaus.