Gaus spent the morning raiding the library for information. One thing was clear about the time prison: it started on Tuesday at 3 am and stopped at exactly 3 am the next day thus making it exactly twenty-four hours. How it worked resembled his Rewind, so he would probably understand it through the magiwatch. Hence his desire to understand the magiwatch today.

From 8 am to 10 am was an arduous study. Then Abbas came in shortly after ten. He passed by his table and unless if he was imagining it, the other boy had smiled courteously.

Gaus nodded in return.

Abbas selected books from the bookshelves and put them on his seat. Whenever he passed by Gaus' seat he would look at Gaus' collection and made a face. Finally, he couldn't resist and he pointed at one book. "Is that Magiwatch by T. John?"

Gaus looked at the name on the cover before he nodded. "Yeah, why?"

Abbas harrumphed. "That's class 1 basic, why do you bother reading such an old book? That one and that one are all basic as well." He picked a bigger one closer to him and read the cover. "The Watch, even this one is class 3 basic. What are you doing with all these books?"

'Basic classes' were like kindergarten.

"My magiwatch is malfunctioning, that's why," Gaus said.

Abbas fell silent seemingly in thought. After what seemed like a few seconds he put the two books in his hand on the table and pressed the crown of his watch twice. The same dark blue light appeared and covered the watch like a blanket. He moved closer to Gaus and shone the light on his watch. Then he withdrew, "check it now, is it better?"

Gaus didn't know what Abbas did (or even if he did anything), but apparently it was supposed to remedy the malfunctioning he mentioned. More importantly, Gaus didn't know he could press the crown.

He looked at the watch expectantly and nodded. "We will see when it does."

"Be sure to tell if it does, I learned these tricks in college it would be a waste not to use them every now and then," Abbas said before he picked his books and went to his seat.

Gaus pressed the crown twice, repeating what Abbas did.

Skill

Name

Description

Level

Skill formula

Longevity

Mana

HP

Press to see more.

He stared silently at the panel, trying to guess where he should press. It said 'press to see more' but where was he supposed to press? Was it the crown again? He went back to the books again. Consequently, he spent the next two hours flipping through books but to no avail. Up to now he still didn't know where to press. Perhaps, the books considered it to be common knowledge, something they didn't have to explain.

After a short debate, he decided to ask the inhabitants of the world directly. But, who should he go to....? His eyes suddenly fell on Abbas and he grinned.

He waited until lunch.

"Abbas, can you help me with something?"

Abbas gently knitted his brows more in surprise than an annoyance. "What?"

"I was involved in an accident a few days ago and because of that, I'm having problems with my memory. It has gone to the extent that I often forget how to use my magiwatch. Tell me how to use it properly before I messed something up." Gaus explained with a solemn expression.

Abbas raised a brow. "you were involved in an accident? How?"

Gaus inhaled slowly and looked through the window with a dramatic nod. "I fell into the sea and drowned for a couple of minutes." Yeah, that was an easy way to get amnesia back on Earth.

Abbas burst into laughter. "You are telling me you lost your memory after drowning for a couple of minutes?" He stopped laughing to catch his breath. "Are you kidding me?"

Gaus furrowed his brows.

Abbas ignored his blatant expression and went on, "this is a good one, you really know how to do it. 'A mage drowning to death after just a couple seconds in', this could sell."

Gaus ignored him and just Rewound for a few seconds.

***

"Abbas, I want to discuss magiwatch and its uses with you. You know, to remind ourselves of the old days. What do you say?"

Abbas shook his head. "Nope. Why magiwatch, that's like class 1 basic?"

Gaus tried to argue his point but the other boy was vehement. He sighed in defeat and Rewound again.

***

"Abbas, tell me everything you know about magiwatch."

"Magiwatch? Are you serious?"

Gaus shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Look, there's research going on about how mages easily forget about their basic once they receive their license."

"Okay." Abbas sighed in relief, "I like participating in researches, but it'll have to wait until later when I'm going home. It's already evening and I have a lot more things to read before I can safely go."

Gaus shook his head. "No, you don't understand. It's just two questions, not some page-long questionnaire."

Abbas thought about it for a moment before he reluctantly agreed.

Gaus smiled internally. "Tell me the uses of magiwatch."

"Basically four: one, keeping track of time and date; two, providing information on biodata; three, providing information on skill; four, providing information on the physique." His tone was clear he didn't want to talk about this mundane topic. It was like forcing a university student to discuss their first-grade courses.

Gaus ignored it and went on, "yes, that's correct. Second... er... Last question: how do you check out these uses?"

Abbas pointed at his watch disinterestedly. "This is the time and date." He pointed to the blinking panel on the lower left of the dial. "For biodata, press the crown once; for skill, press twice; for physique, press thrice."

"But if you press the crown twice it will say 'press to see more', what does that mean? Where are you supposed to press?" Gaus cut in unable to keep his cool.

Abbas raised a finger to stop him. "Just two questions, remember?"

Gaus smiled. "Oh, sorry. I got carried away." He couldn't help mentally praising the Rewind and all the opportunities it had given him.

***

"What does 'press to see more' mean?"

Abbas gave him the 'what are you talking about?' look.

"I mean if you press the crown twice to reveal your skill what will be the next step? Where should you press next?" He rephrased the question.

"Isn't that obvious?" Said Abbas, "just press each item to see more about it."

Huh, that simple?

Gaus grimaced. "Does pressing the blue panel work?"

Abbas nodded. "Of course, it does. If you want to see any item just press it."

Great. Just great. Two hours of reading and he couldn't figure it out. It was simple and the whole thing worked just like a rotary dial telephone: you could control it by pressing the individual parts. Being taught by experienced people seemed to work better than self-study, he thought.

From there on, he asked Abbas every question that came to his mind before allowing him to go.

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It was time to do some tests. He pressed the crown once to reveal his biodata.

Biodata

Name

Tribe

Race

Bank account

Reputation

Guild Press to see more.

He pressed Name.

Gaus

Well, that was unexpected. How did the watch know his name? Food for thought.

He moved to Tribe.

N/A

What?

He thought it would be 'earthling' since he was from Earth. Or maybe something like outsider or stranger, but there was just nothing, meaning even the 'almighty' watch didn't know his Tribe.

He kept that aside and moved to Race.

N/A

Again?

So the watch wasn't omniscient. He would have to fill these gaps on his own but that could wait. He moved to Bank Account.

Account balance : 0

Save money? Y/N?

Withdraw? Y/N?

This one was straightforward. Although, he didn't know how the banking system works. Would it be just like the modern banks on Earth or maybe something else entirely?

He moved to Reputation.

Reputation : 0

Abbas told him any positive number meant you were friends with the corps. Most people remained at zero all their lives.

He moved to Guild.

No guild information recorded.

Guilds were registered magical organizations that gave jobs to licensed mages. Anyone with the right skills could visit a major guild branch and register, but that could wait until after the time prison.

He scrolled down to see each item again. Tribe and Race were absent which could mean a lot of things, but the rest were there and were somewhat self-explanatory. He would study each later.

He pressed the crown twice.

Skill

Name

Description

Level

Skill formula

Longevity

Mana

HP Press to see more.

He moved to the first one on the list: Name.

Rewind

The name immediately reminded him of how he used a remote control to rewind his favorite scenes in a movie.

"Rewind..." He rolled the word on his tongue as if tasting it. "Truly a befitting name."

He moved to Description.

Turn time back by a simple touch of your watch. By Rewinding, you are literally erasing every record of existence, but the watch will protect your memory. Use the crown for activation.

Cost : 4 mana/sec

Everything would depend on how much mana he had.

He moved to skill formula which, according to Abbas, was the most important aspect of any skill. It was instrumental in leveling up any skill and also learning how to master it. But the problem with skill formulas was they were written in the Runic Tongue of the old world which was exceedingly difficult to comprehend. Very few mages were capable of reading it. While nobles and students of the Royal Academies had their skill formula translated for them almost as soon as they awakened, rogue mages like Gaus must pay other independent organizations to translate it for them.

He pressed the tab. This time the writings came in the form of a hexagonal drawing several inches wide. It pulsed and glowed with different lights that forced him to squint. To read and translate it he needed a skilled enchanter who specialized in the Tongue, and that would need money, time, and trust. Abbas told him he shouldn't give his formula to anyone unless he absolutely trusted them because it could be used against him.

After several minutes, he committed the image to his mind and moved to the next: level.

Level 1

It wasn't surprising giving he was just starting. By understanding the skill formula, you could level up any skill from level 1 up to level 100.

He moved to longevity.

Total longevity: 51 years

1. This is your lifespan and it literally determines how long you will live.

2. Identify: this is an innate function of longevity that allows you to see your opponents' level if your longevity is higher than theirs. Identify? Y/N?

Abbas had explained it to him clearly so he just focused on him and pressed yes. A small, blue box with two lines of short words appeared by the side of Abbas' face.

Abbas

Level 6

He could see both the name and level of his opponent as long as his longevity was higher. He went on to see the names and levels of four more people in the library before he moved to mana.

Mana : 288/305 (0.5/min)

Mana was simply the oil that powered all skills in the world. If high enough it could be used to control spirits, according to abbas.

Next was HP.

HP: 100%

This, according to Abbas, was a determinant of overall health status. It was affected by hunger, poison, injury, and basically any sickness. The effect depended on the severity and recovery depended mostly on rest and the removal of the injurious agent.

Last on the list was Physique. He pressed the crown three times in a row.

Physique

Speed: 8

Constitution : 5

Strength: 7

Speed was how fast you could move compared to the baseline which was zero. As a rule of thumb, if a normal human had zero then an average mage would have 7. Gaus had 8 which was just a figure above the average. Constitution indicated how much damage your body could take before your health reduced to less than 50%. The average was 5 and Gaus also had 5. Lastly, strength. It represented the amount of damage you could make with a bare fist. Gaus fell below average because an average mage was expected to have a strength of 8 and he had 7.

"This marked the end of today's research." He sighed and closed the book.

"I'm going home."

Gaus raised his head to see Abbas standing in front of his desk.

"Home?" Gaus asked partly to himself. He also used to have a home.

"Yea, home. See you tomorrow." Abbas added.

Tomorrow? Gaus couldn't help rolling his eyes at the boy. Poor boy. There was every chance that there would be no tomorrow and that he would be there tomorrow repeating the same thing he did today. Everyone will keep on repeating their actions endlessly until the loop was stopped. Gaus looked away from Abbas with a defeated sigh. Nothing really mattered now. The time prison had put the entire world on hold. There would be no more human development or growth. Whoever died today would come back hale and hearty tomorrow, and if you were born today then you would die at the end of the loop and you would have to be reborn tomorrow. Even if Gaus were to die there was every chance he would still be alive as soon as the loop restarted, and he would find himself at the center of that street by 3 am tomorrow. What a terrifying reality!

He came back to his senses. There was still one question he forgot to ask. "Abbas, can two mages have exactly the same magiwatch skill?"

"Nope, only if the skill is a Contract, but a true magiwatch skill is one hundred percent unique. And, even though, everyone has a magiwatch only a few have magiwatch skill, specifically one in one thousand." Abbas explained.

Gaus turned around on his seat to face Abbas.

"One in one thousand? You mean only one mage out of every thousand mages will have the skill?"

"Of course. I also don't have it; I'm using lightning Contract." He clenched his fist and when he opened his palm lightning danced on it. The surrounding people turned around with wide eyes.

"Huh, he's a mage."

"He's a Contract."

Abbas quickly dispelled the bolt.

"It's difficult getting Contracts you know." He said. Then he lowered his voice to a whisper, "they're watching like owls."

Gaus was too preoccupied to appreciate the joke. If what Abbas said was true then only he had Rewind and nobody else could Rewind time but him. And this would rule out the possibility of someone else Rewinding the day, since theoretically only he could do that. Nothing was confirmed at this point, but if he was really the only mage in the universe who could turn time back then it was possible his magiwatch was responsible for the loop. In other words, Gaus' magiwatch could and was Rewinding the entire day. But why? Why would his watch just decide to keep repeating the day on and on? Besides, his mana was limited and he could only Rewind for a maximum of two minutes without running out. Then where did the watch get the mana to Rewind for twenty-four hours?

So many questions. He growled.

He pulled one book from the table and opened page 322. "Look, Abbas, read this line."

Abbas squatted to get a closer view. "Every magiwatch has its ability which can be used by the owner."

"I told you every watch has its skill, why are you insisting it's one in every thousand?" Gaus deadpanned.

"Huh," Abbas opened his mouth exasperatedly, "Aldurish isn't your native tongue, is it?"

Aldurish was the most widely spoken language in both the north and the south, but there were still many tribes who had to learn it as they grew. One of the mysteries was how Gaus could speak it without actually learning it. His only difference from the natives was his bizarre accent and his inability to differentiate some closely related words like 'skill' and 'ability'.

Gaus shook his head. "No, it isn't."

"Still you should know that ability is different from skill. Ability in that context refers to all the functions of the magiwatch, but skill is a skill. Look," He pointed at his watch (specifically the crown), "this is the remote control. It's late, but I'll show you some tricks tomorrow morning." They exchanged a few more words before Abbas left in a hurry.

Gaus sighed. There was a chance that he had misunderstood some (if not most) of the things he had read in the books. A consequence of not being a native speaker.