Gaus

He walked Antelina to the academy in silence. He had tried and failed to start a conversation with the girl. Apparently what just happened was too much for her. He decided to let her sleep on it. Maybe she would be ready to talk in the morning.

More importantly, how did Tyren know about his relationship with Rachel? Only two or three people knew about it and Tyren wasn't one of them. This wasn't the first time something like this happened. In the first restart, when he chased after the red-haired girl, Tyren showed up. It was as if he could see what he was doing. He would have to find out about it.

The man could be bluffing about exposing him but it mattered little to him. Bluffing or not, he had no intention to give in. If he left Rachel just because Tyren said so then the guy could just threaten him every time he wanted something from him.

The following loop came and Gaus delivered the package to Rachel first thing in the morning. As far as he was concerned, nothing had changed. If Tyren wasn't bluffing then he should go ahead and do his worse. He expected nothing less.

Next, he went to see Linc in his office. The teacher stared at him for an extended period before he sighed.

"What are you doing here?" Linc asked.

"You are my mentor," Gaus said, looking offended. "I'm here for my private training session."

Linc scratched his forehead. He had been frowning ever since Gaus stepped into the office.

"Didn't I give you a compulsory leave?" Linc asked.

"Yes," Gaus said. "But that's supposed to last until I can do advanced levitation."

"So why are you here?" Linc asked.

Gaus shrugged.

Linc picked one of his mana-charged tablets and threw it at him. Gaus focused on the stone. He applied everything he'd learned so far and tried to levitate the stone midair. At first, nothing happened. But when the stone was a meter away from his face, it stopped midair and then went up just above his head before it continued its trajectory to hit the wall behind.

Congratulations, you have learned advanced levitation.

You can now use pure mana to move objects at rest or change the trajectory of moving objects. It doesn't matter if said objects are mana-charged or big or far away as long as you have the mana.

Cost: 10 MP per second.

Next, the overzealous teacher fired an arrow at his leg. Gaus deflected it just as easily as with the tablet.

"How...?" Linc said. "Just a couple of days ago you were struggling with it."

Gaus just stared at him as if to say he didn't know.

"Were you by any chance playing dumb?" Linc asked.

"No, sir," Gaus said. He was secretly enjoying the look on the teacher's face.

"I'll make up a new lesson plan for you," Linc said. "Come back in one week. In the meantime, you should level up all your mana taming skills to level 10."

That done, Gaus went to see Antelina in her room, hoping she was ready to talk about it now.

"Hey," Antelina said. "How did it go?"

He earlier told her he would be seeing Linc today about the 'pelting exercise'.

"He was impressed," Gaus said. "Thanks to you, of course. He even said he would make a lesson plan for me. Hey, can I come in?"

She looked around nervously. "Yes, come in." She didn't sound so confident.

"Nice room," he said as a way to steer the mood.

"Thank you. How's your friend?"

"What friend?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"The one from the restaurant."

So she was finally ready to talk about it.

"I don't know how he is and, trust me, he's not my friend."

"Is it true?" She asked. "That you joined the loop before coming to the academy?"

"It's true," he said.

"So why are you here?" She asked. "They will kill you if they find out."

"I know," he said. "But I have no other option. If I leave the academy, the observers will find me and I will have to deal with another situation like this."

He told her enough to convince her he was the victim. He had to earn her trust.

"Aren't you afraid this Tyren guy would tell others if you don't heed his warning?" She asked.

"He needed me," Gaus said. "I'm the only thing keeping him in the loop. If I die or lose my place in the loop then he would go with me. He was bluffing."

"He told me," she said with a shrug. "It didn't look like he was bluffing."

"It doesn't matter," he said. "I will not be cowered into forsaking my friends."

Gaus wondered if he was doing a good job at convincing the girl.

"Are you the archmage that joined the loop last year?" She asked after some silence.

"No, I'm not. I don't know anything about any archmage."

She stared at him with narrowed eyes, probably wondering if she was to believe him or not.

"The best thing is to report you to the authorities," she said. "At least then I won't be killed alongside you when they ultimately find out."

"I can't allow you to do that," he said, looking away from her.

"I didn't ask for any of this," she said. "I don't want any of this. Can I just unheard everything?"

"I'm afraid not," he said. "But you can keep your mouth shut and pretend as if nothing happened. In exchange, I'll owe you a favor."

"I don't want any favors," she said through her teeth. "If I'm going to risk my life then I won't do it because of favor. I'll do it because you are my friend."

A friend? That sounded... friendly. He didn't expect that.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me, just make sure I keep my head."

It was funny how a looper who had died at least a couple of times could still be afraid of dying.

Once Gaus made sure Antelina would keep her mouth shut, he went to see Rachel. His training on identifying mana veins continued. He could now identify the veins supplying the lightning bolt in about two hours. It was still too early to be used in battle but he believed it was a good start.

"Instead of searching for the active vein," he said. "Why can't I just occlude all the major veins at once? I mean, the vein I'm looking for is a tributary from the major veins, right?"

"That's not possible," Rachel said."The major veins are too big. You need a smaller vein you can occlude. But you can try it and see for yourself. I don't know, maybe you can discover a new skill."

Ignoring her sarcasm, he pushed world essence into the 23 major veins that made up the cord. His mana and world essence mixed with the latent mana in the veins and the veins shrank. It was just a fraction but it was there. The lightning bolt dimmed. Half of the heat coming from it disappeared.

Congratulations, you have learned promana block.

Rank: rare 2

Use your mana to suppress the major veins. You can not shut a major vein down but you can reduce its efficiency by polluting it with foreign mana and world essence.

Cost: 1 MP

"What just happened?" Minorita asked.

"I have promana block," he said.

"Promana block?" She didn't sound like she knew about it. "I see. It suppressed the bolt by about 1.3%. Let's see what happens when you level it up to level 10."

Promana block has reached level 10.

Cost up to 10 MP.

Repeated attempts at suppressing the bolt revealed the new suppression rate to be around 6%. In other words, he could now suppress every attack from his enemies by about 6%. It may not seem much now but it would improve every time he leveled it up.

Another hour of training was gone.

"Is everything okay?" She asked. "You seem disturbed."

He had been trying hard to hide it but he wasn't doing as good as he thought he was.

"Is it something you would like to discuss?" She asked.

"Tyren came yesterday," he said.

"He did?"

"Yes."

He told her what happened and how the man had threatened to expose him.

"But it doesn't make any sense," she said. "Tyren should be gone from the loop. The only thing keeping him in it is the soulbond and the soul bond is gone."

"Maybe the soul bond isn't gone," Gaus said.

Rachel shook her head. "No," she said. "The soulbond is gone. I'm sure of it."

"Then why is he still in the loop?" Gaus asked.

"I don't know," she said. "But there's only one way to find out. We have to capture and interrogate him, or better just kill him."

"Fine, let's do it."

Somehow he didn't have a problem with killing Tyren.

"Hold your horses," she said. "We have to know everything about him first. Do you think we can get something from his friends in La Magia?"

"Yes, maybe. Go there and check. I will check out the academy."

Tyren shouldn't be difficult to find. Every looper had their number. Tyren was XM0911. There must be someone, a classmate or a teammate, who knew him.

The next loop came and Gaus started his hunt. The temporary loopers who considered themselves as the upper echelon wouldn't answer any question without a real incentive. He gifted several high-quality swords to get them to talk.

Tyren Ayurvada Onis was in class 87. After he graduated, he was sent to the arena to represent Thaha. Why Thaha? Nobody knew. The loopers didn't ask why or how, they just got the job done.

Tyren couldn't finish the job even after trying for two years. He was meant to reach the semifinals but he couldn't pass the quarter-finals and that was why he was erased.

None of his classmates knew where he came from.

"He might have come from the First World," a former teammate of Tyren said. "I saw him talking to the First Worlders a couple of times and they seemed close."

Dr. Arna from La Magia - the woman who asked him to observe how Tyren fought in the arena - didn't know much about the man. As far as she was concerned, Tyren was just a talented and kind battle alchemist.