Gaus went back to his room in a daze. The decision to kill Tyren was becoming firm in his mind. What could bring the man to the school even? During the first restart when he came, Gaus thought he was just there because he'd been readmitted into the loop. But when he realized he was living in a second time loop and Tyren was aware of it then Gaus realized the man had been acting all along. In other words, there was something else that brought him back to the academy besides just being readmitted into the loop.

It was already clear that his desire for the girl Raya and red hair, in general, was related to the soul bond Tyren was using. Both times, Tyren had come to the academy when Gaus was paying attention to Raya. So, did paying attention to Raya indicate a problem with the soulbond and was making Tyren come to the academy? Or was there a different reason? But who was telling Tyren about Gaus and Raya? How did he know about it?

After what happened in the last restart, Gaus suspected that Tyren was using the soulbond to monitor him. To confirm it, Gaus had decided to fake an attachment to the red-haired girl in this restart. If Tyren was using the bond to monitor him then he should have been able to know it was faked. But if someone was reporting everything to him then he wouldn't know what Gaus was planning to do.

Now the first thing on his list was to find out who was reporting to Tyren. It was more than likely the person was in their class. So Gaus listed all the people in the class. The first woman to come to his mind was Ariwen. The girl was full of suspicion. He wouldn't be surprised if she had been in contact with Tyren. But looks could be deceiving; it could be someone he didn't even suspect. After much thought, Gaus decided to investigate the whole class. He would start from Antelina, the least suspicious, to Ariwen, the most suspicious.

He would also look outside the classroom. Tyren had been in the academy for a long time before he even came. He would have friends and allies, even though Tyren would be hesitant to involve others since he would be telling them about him being in the loop. Gaus would still investigate the man called XM0033. He was one of the few people he'd seen talking to Tyren face to face in the academy. Nothing was indicating the man had any relationship with Tyren but Gaus didn't want to leave anything out. The unsuspected could be the ones doing it.

He would investigate even their classroom teacher, Linc. The first time he was assassinated, he told Linc about Tyren being a former temporary looper. Gaus had yet to find out why he was killed. Was the fact that Tyren was erased from the loop and then returned a big secret that should be protected by murder? Gaus shook his head. That didn't look like it unless there was something about Tyren's return. But what was it? Tyren was a temporary looper that was deleted from the loop and then restored later. That was all about it, right? Or was there something that Gaus and Linc didn't know about it?

Gaus frowned in thought. The further he studied it the more confusing it became. One disturbing question was why didn't The Master return Tyren at every restart? Was there something specific that Tyren was doing that was getting The Master to restore him? Or was Gaus becoming attached to Raya the reason The Master brought Tyren back? Gaus had no way of discovering these things right now since he had no chance to ask The Master or Tyren.

The only thing left for him to do was investigate and find out the spy who was giving his information to Tyren. There was one other woman who made his suspects list. He didn't know her name or her rank in the academy, but Linc called her the secretary-general. On the day Gaus was assassinated, Linc had told him he would be meeting the secretary-general about Tyren. According to the teacher, she was his friend and would help him investigate Tyren. However, Gaus was killed a few hours after that. It just didn't feel right. He must investigate them and see what he might find.

Right now, he would leave a working hypothesis in his mind. He would assume that Tyren wasn't being readmitted into the loop by The Master. He would assume Tyren was only there because of the second time loop. Although, that would bring questions about how Tyren was able to infiltrate the academy if he wasn't a student there. But it was still better than having no direction at all.

The next day came and Gaus returned to LA to attend his classes.

"Antelina," Gaus said to the girl next to him. "Do you have time after class?"

Antelina thought for a moment before shaking her head. "I have a lot of things today, class rep. Who do you want?"

"It's fine. I'm forming a team to hunt something down today in the evening and I thought you would be interested."

Antelina frowned. "Hunting?"

Gaus nodded.

Antelina shook her head with a sigh. "So all the dungeons in the school aren't enough for you?"

Gaus nodded and ignored the mumblings that followed from the girl.

Since he couldn't get Antelina to accompany him, he turned to the rest of the class. Who better to accompany him? Gatan came in as Gaus observed the members of the class one by one. The man went straight to the seat near him and sat.

"Er... Gatan, I want to go hunting this evening after class, but I still haven't found someone worthy to accompany me. I need a strong man who can..."

"Say no more," Gatan raised his hand to stop him. "I'm in. What time do we leave?"

Gaus smiled. It was difficult for Gatan to turn down an invitation to fight. The man seemed to be ready to fight anything.

It wasn't long before Ariwen came in together with Tyren. They seemed to be close already if the way they walked closed to each other's shoulder was any indication. They looked for a place to sit next to each other. Gaus could see Ariwen whispering something to Tyren.

The most suspicious one had already shown herself. But two things didn't make any sense. First of all, Tyren wouldn't just show his informer. He would more than likely confuse Gaus and have him thinking in the wrong direction. By talking to Ariwen on the second day after his arrival, he was like revealing himself to Gaus. Ariwen didn't even seem to be the right person to spy on him since most of the time she wasn't with him. Usually, in such instances, you needed someone close to the person you wanted to be spied on. Except for Antelina and Gatan, Gaus would spend an entire restart without getting close to anyone in the class.

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XM9997 came in and she gave a lesson on enchantment. After her, Badwin came in and spoke on the dangers of the spirit realm. By now, Gaus could repeat every lesson given in the first week word by word. And as usual, the teacher for the school of swordsmanship wasn't available. He would have to look for the man in a future restart and see what was keeping him from coming to class.

After the class, Gaus told Gatan where they would meet and he followed Badwin to his office. He stood in the doorway and gave the teacher some thirty minutes to rest before knocking.

The door opened. A rabbit he was used to seeing on the teacher's shoulder held the doorknob and stared at him. Gaus looked at the rabbit with a frown. Was it normal for experts in the school of spirits to be walking around with spirit animals? Gaus suddenly had an image of a classroom full of bunnies and cats and fire breathing drakes in his head.

"What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a rabbit?"

Gaus took a step back reflexively. Aside from the fact that he'd never seen a rabbit opening a door, he had also never seen a rabbit talking. But the furry thing had just scolded him.

"Either you come in or you go back," said the rabbit.

Gaus glanced around the office to spot Badwin in his chair and then calmed down a bit. He didn't want the teacher transforming into the rabbit and only realizing it after doing something bad.

Badwin saw the confusion in his eyes and waved for him to enter. Gaus walked past the rabbit while the thing kept challenging him with different looks and stances.

After sitting down, Gaus looked at the teacher and then at the rabbit.

"Shelf, will you stop scaring the class rep?"

Shelf? He even gave it a name.

"What brings you here, class rep?" The teacher asked.

"Er... I have a question, sir."

Badwin frowned a little before giving him a chance to continue talking.

"On wood clones," Gaus added.

"Wood clones?" Said Badwin, surprised. "What do you want to know about wood clones?"

Gaus paused to think for a moment. He quickly revised everything in his head, not wanting to say something that would throw the entire restart into turmoil.

"What's the use of wood clones? Like what can they do? Can you put them to work and send them to another town? Are they intelligent?"

Badwin frowned even more. "Most students don't come looking for me until after visiting the spirit realm and finding a spirit companion. Do you have a wood spirit already, class rep?"

Gaus shook his head. He had no spirit companion but he had wood clones stalking him like bodyguards.

"No," Gaus said. "But I hope to get one if I can. I've already started researching on it to know the skills I can use."

The teacher stared at him for a moment before he shrugged. "Wood spirit, eh? Such spirits are not many. The few remaining do not choose people often. The problem is you need more than just affinity for the school of spirits to control wood. You need a high affinity for world essence as well. Don't forget wood is a living thing. I'm not sure which book you saw wood cloning magic in but such skills are obsolete now. Even if you get wood spirit you won't be able to use wood clones."

"Obsolete?" Gaus asked, an image of the clones stalking him flashing in his mind. Admiral Red Rider and Advisor Porasak had both confirmed to him that they had many wood clones running around the city. They called them sentinels.

"Yeah," Badwin said with a soft sigh. "You see, wood clones didn't go obsolete because people can't produce them. No, they went obsolete because no one can maintain them. The weakest wood clone I know of requires at least 200 MP per minute to function. The stronger and more intelligent ones that can go to distant places for missions need at least 10,000 MP per hour to function properly. And the further they are from you the more MP they need. There is no one in existence that has so much MP to spare."

Really? But the marines used not one but many wood clones. Was the teacher not aware of it? If his statement was true then there was no way the marines could power so many sentinels to work for them for twenty-four hours. Was there some way the admirals were powering the sentinels that Badwin didn't know of? Were the clones being powered by multiple users?

"And there's no other way to power the clones except by MP?" Said Gaus.

Badwin shook his head. "There isn't, of course. Spirit magic is like any other and requires mana to function."

"What if there's someone so powerful, say an admiral level, with a hundred thousand mana reserve?" Gaus asked.

Badwin burst out laughing for the first time. "One hundred thousand? The maximum MP a man has ever had is 3,000. Even the extinct dwarves of the equatora didn't have more than 2,000."

"The extinct dwarves of the equatora?" Gaus asked. The name caught his interest. "How did an entire race go extinct?"

Badwin shrugged. "I don't know. Ask the Qatalans living in the equatora. Anyway, wood clones are obsolete."

"But," said Gaus. "If I'm lucky enough to have a hundred people each with a wood spirit and over a thousand MP, can I produce many wood clones to ring them for work?"

Badwin chuckled. "It is not possible to have a hundred wood spirit users and each to have over a thousand MP. But even if that happened and all of you power one clone at the same time, how long do you think you will last? Say it requires only 500 MP in a minute, which means it will require 500 times 60 MP in an hour. You'll be exhausted in less than five hours even if you devoted your entire mana to it. You just can't power such clones to function properly. Many people smarter than you have tried and failed."

Badwin was silent for a moment looking at Gaus before shaking his head.

"Class Rep, I don't discourage students but I don't think you will get a wood spirit. So this research you are doing on it is of little use. Just focus on the dangers of the spirit realm for now. The spirits have been acting weird lately. Let's hope you'll even get a spirit at all."

Gaus nodded. "Yes, sir. Thank you."

With this Gaus returned to his room to prepare. Today, he would catch the clones stalking him. There must be some way the marines were powering the sentinels. But for what purpose? If creating the clones was so difficult and expensive then why risk it? Unless it had a significant benefit or maybe it was related to the loop in some way. Either way, Gaus was set on finding out about it.

On the other hand, he would take this opportunity to get to know one of his classmates, Gatan.

He changed into a light dress and went out to meet with Gatan. The other man was already waiting for him while playing with his sword. Antelina and Raya sat by the side. Gaus frowned at the girls. He first invited Antelina to join him but she refused. And with everything going on, Raya wasn't even on his list. But here they were, armed and ready.

"You are late, class rep," said Antelina.

"He's the class rep," Raya said. "Don't bother him. Things are already too much on his plate."

Antelina glared at her. "You and your love..."

"And... who invited you again?" Gaus cut her off. They stared at him as if he was asking the wrong question. After a while, he sighed. "You're welcome. I was late because I was talking to Badwin."

"Badwin?" They asked in unison.

Gaus nodded. "Yes, our classroom teacher Badwin. I went to him about this hunt."

The three shared an uneasy look.

"What are we hunting again, rep?" Said Raya.

"Wood clones," Gaus said. "Powerful clones that shouldn't even exist. I know where they are and you will help me catch them. Now is the time if any of you is going to back out."