Eh. I leveled up?

I gained 6 levels?!

Before I can gush out about it, I notice the rabbitman’s body glowing a faint yellow before slowly dispersing into yellow energy.

“What the hell is that?” Hessien asks.

“It became a ghost?” Vacinay asks, freaked out.

One of the guards shakes his head before explaining, “No. That happens when a skill is broken. The energy that made the form is released back into the world—after being absorbed and processed by the one who broke it or was closest to it when it was broken.”

They look at me.

Ghomas asks, “What happens when someone absorbs it?”

I'm curious too.

He replies, “They level up.”

15 minutes later.

I walk up and down in the big bedroom. The other three are sitting, looking at me with awe, except for Vacinay. She did get a healing item a second ago from a guard, though.

With her eyes on me, she injects herself with a red syringe that has green thick fluid in it. Apparently, it's called a healing shot. Instead of potions, they inject themselves with healing elixirs.

Hessien has already taken his healing shot to fix his arm.

Instead of being patient, he quickly shouts, “What the hell is taking you so damn long? Purchase a skill already!”

“Calm down. I am trying to set up the mood for my big reveal,” I respond as soon as possible.

With my arms folded, I look out of the window, waiting for the clouds to get out of the way of the cracked moon’s light. When it finally does, I grin. The ritual is now complete.

I summon my legendary card and look at the available options at hand.

Skill Description Price Future sight You can see in the future 5 skill points Past sight You can see the past 6 skill points Time freeze You can stop time 10 skill points

Those three are still the only ones I can unlock.

There are some crazy interesting ones that I really like(but can't get): Time-Loop Traps, age alteration, and concentrated time reversal are just some of them. Especially the latter one since it allows me to reverse time only in a specific part of something. Basically, it can make me a pseudo-healer. But I need 40 skill points for it.

The best option of what I have available is clearly time freeze. According to the manual/guide, we can only gain a single skill point per level. Yet, I gained 8. I'm not sure why.

“Hurry up!” Vacinay barks. “That way, when I try to strangle you to death, it would be fair.”

I ignore her. With a deep breath, I focus on the time freeze option. My card glows a deep white before my fingers that hold it also glow the same color. Soon after, it suddenly feels like a memory is suddenly inserted into my brain.

I blink a couple of times. It's a strange feeling, truly…

I say, “I did it. I can freeze time now.”

Their eyes widen. And now Vacinay anxiously responds, “I thought you said you were going to take future sight…”

With a smile, I say, “I love to lie.”

I then raise my fist. “Come fight me!”

Hessien doesn’t say anything. Instead, he's mumbling under his breath about the ethics of time freeze.

Vacinay stands up with a slight limp. “Fine!”

With a completely confident stance, I dramatically spread my arms wide. “Freeze… time—“

Vacinay’s fist clashes against my chest before I can finish. A yelp escapes my lips as I fall to the ground, holding my chest in slight pain (I thought it would have hurt a lot more).

That wretch! “What the hell! Who the hell punches someone in their breast?!”

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Vacinay stands confident looking at her fist. “So much for time freeze.”

I stare at her. She looks back and realizing what I'm about to do; she dashes. “No—“

Freeze the goddamn time!

Her words come to a halt. Immediately I get up. I crack my neck and wind up my fist.

Okay… an elbow strike to the head shall do just—

My thoughts are ended as her feet nearly graze me. What the hell was that?!

Does it only last two seconds?! It isn’t like I could afford leveling it up either! God damn it!

With half of my EP now gone, I once again freeze time, stopping her fist an inch away from my face.

Let’s see… I don’t have much time to dwell on how to attack her. So I opt for the best option at hand.

With a swing of my feet, it closes in on her crutch. As soon as my time freeze ends, my feet have already hit.

Her will drops along with her confident expression. She drops to her knees in pain and agony.

“You bitch!” She yells, holding her crutch.

Ghomas mumbles, “Ah, I always wondered if it hurt the same as men when women got hit there. Cool thing to learn, I guess.”

I doubt it's on the same level. But the pain is enough to make someone drop to their knees, anyway.

Hessien gets up to stand before us. “Okay, the conflict ended. You got a punch on her, she got a kick on you”

“Mhm. I agree,” I say while looking at Vacinay, smugly.

Vacinay glares at me for a second before sighing. She gets up using Hessien for assistance. “Whatever. I will take pleasure in knowing I killed her.”

Maybe I should have kicked her harder... Perhaps holding back was a mistake.

Hessien raises an eyebrow. “What?”

“What?” she responds.

“You killed her; you just said that. What the heck does that mean?”

Was he not paying attention at all when I was making it clear that I could reverse time when I died?

“When I die, I rewind time,” I say.

“No shot,” he says with a look of pity. It's as if to say, ‘This poor child is so delusional.’

My temper is close to rising, but I just roll my eyes. “Okay then.”

Hessien looks at me suspiciously now, then at Vacinay and Ghomas.

He asks Ghomas, “She is lying, right?”

“Why are you asking me?”

Hessien moves onto Vacinay. Before he can ask, she nods.

He looks me up and down before picking me up as if I'm a damn child. “Hell yeah! Now we are talking! Defending this world is going to be mega easy!”

“Put me down, boy—before I age-beam you!”

He holds me still and then wonders. “That makes me wonder. Well, I have a ton of questions. Since you can loop through time, do you actually go back in time, or do you create a new branch in the timeline?”

I haven't even thought about that yet. And to be honest, I have no idea. “No clue. Perhaps we are actually dead in multiple alternate universes.”

It's terrifying to think about. What if this world is a mere clone/replica of the original one?

Hessien frowns. I'm still waiting for this damn sucker to put me down. I'm 17 not 8, goddamn it!

Oh right, I just remembered, I am actually 18 now. Since we were 'reincarnated' a week later into this world.

Also… I'm level 10.

While Hessien is deep in thought, I bring my palm down hard on his head. Upon a yelp, he drops me. Unfortunately, I don’t have a graceful fall.

I land roughly on my back, but it doesn’t hurt much.

Hessien rubs his head. “What the hell was that for?!”

“My bad. I just wanted to experiment,” I say as I look at my palm.

Hehe…

I shadow-box. Despite the many fights I got into at school, I never really learned how to fight. So, to anyone with experience, my jabs are absolute shit.

However… the sharp sounds they make in the air are so addictive!

Ghomas gawks. “What the hell? What trick is that? The punches are almost too damn fast to see.”

A wide grin spreads across my face. I place my hands on my hips. “Haha… I think I may be the main character.”

“Your arrogance is showing,” Vacinay blurts.

“I mean, I got time powers. I single-handedly saved the city from a genocidal creature, and I am currently the strongest one here, physically, despite weighing nearly 90 pounds less than Hessien.” I ramble on, unable to get rid of my smirk.

Vacinay responds, “Fate has simply given you a tiny advantage since it would be unfair for you to be among someone as talented as me.”

I show her a thumbs-up. “Sure buddy.”

She growls before falling back on the carpet. “

Whatever. I am getting some sleep. You should too.”

“You plan to kill me—“

“I have no interest in that. I desire the look on your face when I gain the power to shape-shift into a time dragon or something. Jokes aside, we are all tired.” With one eye open, she adds, “Especially you.”

I fold my arms. I am indeed extremely tired… but I want to stay up the whole night experimenting with my time freeze. Not only that, but I hit the required level to use my secondary cards. Not that I plan to since I'm still unaware of the risks or hidden conditions to them.

Hessien thinks then says, “You know, I wonder what my passive skill would be. It’s nowhere on my originator skill card.”

Oh right. I have no idea how I obtained my passive skill.

He asks, “Did you get the rewind skill when you died?”

“I think so. I just randomly rewind.”

Ghomas, who is staring at his card, asks, “Perhaps it needs a condition to be unlocked? Like her condition was dying. So…”

Oh! That makes sense—

Ghomas finishes his sentence, “We just got to die.”

What.

He is already twirling the bed sheet, preparing to use it as a rope!

“No!” I shout. “I don’t think so anyway. It probably relates to the theme of our skill. I think I got my passive for a deeper reason. Sure, protecting me from death is one of them. But also it fits with the theme of time. ‘If I could go back in time and do this differently, I wouldn’t have ended up in this situation.”

Ghomas sighs, almost disappointed.

Vacinay, pretending to be asleep, says, “So it’s probably a defense mechanism. After all, it’s passive. I assume it would trigger when we are near death.”

I look at Hessien before answering her, “No. There must be another condition to it.”

Or perhaps he did obtain a passive skill during one of the loops? Since my rewind stopped his near-death encounters, it would have been impossible to know.

Everyone is deep in thought. I shrug. “I take that back. It probably is the case. But, I think it’s too risky to experiment with.”

Vacinay says, “Hm, you know—“

I cut her off before she can finish talking. I already know what's about to leave her mouth.

“I will not be dying for your dang experiments!” I don’t like the pain from it. But most importantly, I'm not completely aware of the side effects of it, if it has any, that is.

I want to be positive and think it wouldn’t have any, but I always have the mindset that the world has ‘balance’. It's a rather stupid philosophy, I think. But the concept makes sense to me in some form.

The fastest person in the world would never be the strongest. Why? Limited time and focus. Sprinters must be lean; strongmen, aren't. I suppose my philosophy doesn't really accurately apply to the world but to people.

To put it simply, I don't want to use this power too much. Not until I find out what’s the real drawback. I think the consumption of energy points isn't equal to its value, so it has to be more than that.

I sigh. Oh well. Hopefully, it’s not something too insane. If it's simply creating alternate worlds, I would be happy with that.

With a deep breath, I get on the bed and lay on it. “We will find out one way or another. Like Vacinay said, let’s get some sleep.”

Hessien groans. “You want to sleep in the same house that toilet monster lays…”

I nod with a thumbs up. “Yup. Just ignore it.”

He looks me dead in the eyes. With a sudden smile that contradicts his nature, he says, “Okay. I will do exactly that.”

… I have a bad feeling about this.